Zahra Shahid murder: SHC dismisses application for trial transfer

A suspect petitioned the court to transfer case from ATC to sessions court

KARACHI: The trial of slain Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Zahra Shahid's murder will now be tried by an anti-terrorism court, as the Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the suspect's request for his trial by the sessions courts.

The trial transfer was sought by one of the four suspects, Rashid alias Tailor, from Karachi's anti-terrorism court to the ordinary sessions court. The under-trial prisoner had moved an application to the court through his lawyer against his trial before the ATC.

A former vice-president of the PTI, Shahid was gunned down by armed motorcyclists in Defence Phase-IV on May 19, 2013 on the eve of the re-polls in Karachi's NA-250 constituency.

A case was registered under sections 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on behalf of the state at the Gizri police station.

Later, the law enforcers had claimed to have arrested Zahid Abbas Zaidi, Rahid alias Tailor, Kaleem and Irfan Lamba in connection with the high-profile murder.

In June last year, the anti-terrorism court had indicted all of the suspects for murdering the politician. Currently, the trial is being conducted by the ATC inside Karachi Central Prison due to looming security threats.

The lawyer representing the applicant had challenged the jurisdictions of the ATC to try the case. He argued that the case does not fall within the ambit of the anti-terrorism law, thus the trial should be held by the sessions court.

During Monday's proceedings, the police officials contended that the case was rightly registered under the anti-terror law and the ATC was competent to conduct the trial. They opposed the suspect's request and pleaded to the court to dismiss the application, which the court did.

The same bench, meanwhile, dismissed another application seeking the transfer of a trial relating to the murder of policemen from the ATC to the sessions court. The application was filed by Kamran alias Doctor, who is charged with the murder of a policeman, Aurangzeb, in Korangi in 2013.

The applicant's lawyer had questioned the trial of the alleged offence under the anti-terror law. It was argued that since the offence did not fall within the ambit of the anti-terror law, the ATC had no jurisdiction to conduct trial of the case. It was therefore pleaded to the high court to order transferring case trial to the ordinary sessions court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2016.