Court acquits former MQM sector in-charge

Police claim Umair Siddiqui confessed to double murder, as well as killing over 70 people

KARACHI: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) acquitted on Thursday a former Muttahida Qaumi Movement Gulshan-e-Maymar sector in-charge in a dual murder case.

The court stated that the identity parade of the accused, Umair Siddiqui, had not been carried out and his confessional statement was not recorded before the judicial magistrate.

According to the police, Siddiqui had allegedly shot and killed Niaz Gul and Iqbal Pathan in a hotel in Gulshan-e-Maymar.

They claimed that while in the custody of the Rangers, he had confessed to committing the crime, as well as the targeted killing of over 70 people.

NAB inquiry

The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday to complete an inquiry against Qasimabad taluka municipal officer Hatim Mallah and three others accused of corruption within three weeks.

At the hearing, NAB officials informed a two-member bench, headed by SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh and comprising Justice Omar Sial, that an inquiry against the accused was underway. They requested the court for more time to complete the inquiry.

The court directed them to complete the inquiry within three weeks and submit a report at the next hearing.

At the hearing, NAB Director Muhammad Tahir also appeared before the court.

Court refuses to hear plea

Another bench comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed, refused to hear a petition pertaining to the transfer of the Sindh governor’s authority to appoint the provincial ombudsman to the Sindh chief minister.

The court remarked that it could not hear the plea until a bill pertaining to the matter was published and admonished the petitioner, Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, for appearing before the court without any documents.

It commented that the plea would be inadmissible until the bill was published and directed Naqvi to submit a copy of the bill to court after it was published.

Naqvi’s plea stated that the authority for the appointment of the provincial ombudsman was transferred to the CM from the governor under the Establishment of the Office of Ombudsman for the Province of Sindh (Amendment) Bill, 2010, even when the governor had rejected the bill.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2020.