MQM-H activists: Court moved to hear appeal in Shariat Court

Application rejected as murder case appeals can be heard only in high court.

KARACHI:

An application was moved in the Sindh High Court to transfer the appeal of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi’s (MQM-H) Amir Khan and Afaq Ahmed to the Federal Shariat Court.

Advocate M Ashraf Qazi, the counsel for appellant Ismail Qureshi, submitted on Monday that both the suspects, apart from rioting, kidnapping and murder, were accused of trespassing under Islamic Section 17 (3).

Therefore, the appeal cannot be filed in the SHC and can only be heard in the Shariat Court, he argued.

The counsels for Ahmed and Khan, meanwhile, said the trespassing allegation was initially added but Additional and Sessions Judge (East) Obaid Ahmed Khan had ruled in a hearing that the allegation could not be proved.

Hence, the lower court had sentenced Ahmed and Khan to life imprisonment only for murder under Section 302, they said.

Only the high court can hear appeals of murder cases and that is why the application needs to be rejected, they submitted. Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai rejected the application.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2011.