Sindh government given time to file reply in Daniel Pearl’s case

Lawyer for accused says high court had declared order to keep suspects under arrest null and void

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted time to the Sindh government to file a reply on an application seeking release of the accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case.

A three-member bench of the apex court led by Justice Mushir Alam heard the case.

During the hearing, Faisal Siddiqui, counsel for Pearl’s parents, gave arguments regarding the accused pleading guilty.

The counsel for the accused informed the court that an application for their release had been filed.

The Sindh prosecutor general adopted the stance that they had received a copy of the application the same day and sought time from the court for submitting reply.

The prosecutor general further said that the accused were under arrest as their name had been placed in the fourth schedule.

The lawyer for the accused maintained that the high court had declared the order to keep the suspects under arrest null and void.

The hearing of the case was adjourned until Tuesday.

A Sindh High Court (SHC) division bench on April 2 last year had commuted the death sentence of prime suspect Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to seven years and acquitted three others who were serving life terms for abducting and killing Wall Street Journal’s former South Asia bureau chief Denial Pearl in 2002.

The PPP-led provincial government had swiftly challenged the April 2 order in the Supreme Court. The Sindh government had also immediately detained the four men under Section 3 (1) of West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance 1960.

The same SHC division bench, however, annulled the detention order on December 24 and ordered the Sindh government to immediately release the four men.

This order elicited immediate response from the US, which on December 25 expressed its “deep concerns” over the SHC order.