Sarfraz Shah murder case: Rangers colonel’s statement ‘hearsay’

The officer showed up in court without authorisation or identification.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Rangers colonel’s testimony in favour of the six Rangers in the Sarfraz Shah case was discarded as unreliable and hearsay, by Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso when the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) issued its verdict on Friday.

Colonel Salman Ahmed Khan came to court as a defence witness but without official authorisation or identification even though he claimed to be a Rangers’ spokesman. He spoke in defence of the accused men, saying that they were just doing their duty to help the police. He cited a number of official notifications issued by the Sindh government to prove that he had the authority to defend the men.

He was examined by the court as a defence witness even though he was unable to show a service card or formal authorisation from the Pakistan Rangers. He even admitted that the men on trial had never worked under his command.

In its judgment, the court said that the colonel’s evidence was all hearsay and made the incident sound like an accident.

As he was neither an eyewitness to the incident nor the investigating officer, he could not give his opinion about it, the ATC judge noted.



Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2011.