Sarfraz Shah murder case: Savvy lawyer tries to buy more time but judge says ‘no’

Rangers send forward at least six officers to testify against their own.

KARACHI:

Lawyers usually complain that courts delay cases over technicalities — but on Thursday it was this very tactic that a seasoned lawyer used himself before the judge who is hearing the Sarfraz Shah murder case against the Rangers.

That lawyer was M R Sayed, known as one of the coolest and sharpest criminal lawyers in Karachi at least. He is now defending Inspector Bahaur Rahman, one of the Rangers men charged with the daylight murder of 22-year-old Sarfraz Shah in the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto park on June 8. “I need more time to go through the case,” he asked Judge Bashir Khoso of the anti-terrorism court I on Thursday. He said that he was only approached by Rahman’s brother the previous night and needed time to go through the documents.

M R Sayed brought up another point, which may play out in subsequent hearings. He told the judge that charges could be framed or brought up until seven days had passed from the time the copies of the case are provided to the accused to prepare their defence. This condition is laid down in Section 265C of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). M R Sayed insisted on having at least five more days.

But, Judge Khoso reminded him that he was bound by the directions of the Supreme Court that wanted a swift trial with no delays.

One more lawyer, Aamir Warraich, appeared in court and filed power of attorney to represent Afsar Khan, the man who handed Sarfraz Shah over to the Rangers squad who he had called on his cell phone in the park on that ill-fated day. The well-known lawyer, Niamat Ali Randhawa, also appeared in court and he is expected to represent Tariq. Randhawa used to work as a special public prosecutor for the anti-terrorism courts and had worked on sectarian cases such as the murder of Allama Hassan Turabi.

The court asked the remaining four men standing trial to arrange for lawyers or on Friday, the court would provide them with counsel at state expense. The proceedings were adjourned till 10 am today.

Toy pistol

The toy pistol, a lookalike of the dreaded TT pistol, which was allegedly recovered from Sarfraz Shah was surrendered by a sepoy of the Pakistan Rangers before the special investigating officer on June 13.

“It was done on the orders of superior officials,” said the final charge sheet.

Inspector Bahaur Rahman, head of the mobile squad, had the courage to summon police officials to the 32 Wing Abdullah Shah Ghazi Rangers headquarters at Kalapul, where he handed over a TT pistol, three rounds and a shell casing to SHO Naseer Ahmed Tanoli of the Boat Basin police station.

The charge sheet said that at least two different cases — one for possession of an illegal weapon and another for foisting it in a fake case — would be registered against Rahman and tried separately. It could be a sessions court or an anti-terrorism court, but this has yet to be decided.

This was not the only indication that the Rangers are not necessarily cutting their men any slack in this case. In fact, at least six Rangers officials will be actually appearing as witnesses before the prosecution to testify against their ‘co-workers’.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2011.