After the initial hearing, the judges issued notice to the Sindh advocate-general to file comments. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Apart from them, the court also indicted the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Rauf Siddiqui and Saleem Shahzad, Pak Sarzameen Party’s Anis Kaimkhani , the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Qadir Patel and Pasban’s Usman Moazzam. All these politicians were booked in the case in November last year.
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According to the prosecution, the politicians allegedly asked Dr Asim, who runs the Ziauddin hospital chain, to provide medical assistance and shelter to suspected terrorists, who were injured in clashes or otherwise.
As per the court’s procedure, the ATC-II judge read out charges to the suspects – except for Shahzad who has been absconding since the inception of the case – and asked if they confessed to the crime they have been accused of.
All seven suspects rejected the charges and opted to contest the case against them.
After the suspects were charged with the alleged ‘terror facilitation’ crime, the judge issued summons to prosecution witnesses to appear and give their testimonies in court in connection with the case on November 16.
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One of the witnesses named in the charge sheet, Dr Yusuf Sattar – a deputy of Dr Asim at his private hospitals’ group – has already deposed before a judicial magistrate against Dr Asim during recording of his statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Earlier, another ATC granted bail to mayor in a case pertaining to alleged August 20 hate speech of MQM founder Altaf Hussain. The case is one of the two dozen cases of similar nature filed against him.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2016.
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