Zain murder case: Court reserves verdict on maintainability of appeal

LAHORE:

A division bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on maintainability of the Punjab government’s appeal against the acquittal of Mustafa Kanju in Zain murder case.

Prosecutor General Ehtesham Qadir Shah concluded his arguments on the admissibility of the appeal before the bench headed by Justice Shahid Hameed Dar.

Shah said the trial court had decided the acquittal application of the respondent (Kanju) in haste without examining facts of the case. He said the trial court did not record statements of police witnesses who had recovered a Kalashnikov, the murder weapon, from the suspect. He said the trial court had accepted the acquittal application of the suspect solely on the basis of some prosecution witnesses’ retraction of their statements. He said that complainant had expressed his satisfaction over police performance and cooperation in a meeting with the chief minister.

The bench reserved its decision on maintainability. It also directed the prosecutor to provide a list of witnesses who had not testified before the trial court.

On October 27, an anti-terrorism court had acquitted Mustafa Kanju and his guards of charges of murdering 16-year-old Zain and injuring another person.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali had taken suo motu notice of the acquittal.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2015.