Mashaal murder case: Government has no objection to moving the case

Counsel for one accused seeks time to file objections

PESHAWAR: The government has expressed that it has no objection if the trial of the main accused in the murder of journalism student Mashal Khan is shifted from Mardan to the provincial capital.

This was stated by the government as a single judge bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), headed by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, heard a plea filed by Mashaal’s father to transfer the trial of the main accused from the Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) in Mardan to Peshawar.

On Friday, after repeated directives from the court, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Home Department Deputy Legal Director Ateequr Rahman appeared in the courtroom.



He said that the government has no objection on transferring the trial of the main accused and three others to the ATC in Peshawar.

However, the counsel for one of the accused in the case — Asad Katlang — objected to the transfer. Other accused parties have no objection over the transfer of the case to Peshawar

He said that instead of transferring the case all the way to Peshawar, he would rather have it transferred to a place like Abbottabad, where the court has previously transferred the trial of other accused in the case.



However, when the court asked him to present his arguments on this demand, the lawyer for the accused told the court that he had only recently joined the case and needed time to properly prepare the case.

On his request, the court gave him two days to prepare and adjourned the case until Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2018.