Court overturns death sentence

ATC had convicted Fazal Saeed of murdering a police official

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has upheld the appeal of a man sentenced to death on two counts, including for the alleged murder of a police officer, and ordered his release provided he was not wanted in any other case.

A two-member SHC bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, issued the decision while hearing the petition of Fazal Saeed alias Kabari. He was sentenced to death on two counts by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) for murdering a police officer and spreading terrorism.

The petitioner's lawyer pleaded that no concrete evidence had been brought forth by the prosecution against his client during the trial while calling for the conviction to be overturned and his client released.

Police had stated that Saeed shot dead Sub-Inspector Munam Shah at Haji Camp, Sultanabad, on January 1, 2011. Shah was investigating drug peddlers in the area when he was targeted, police added.

Another SHC bench has sought arguments from the prosecution on the appeal of MQM's Saeed Bharam against the death penalty awarded to him for murdering policeman Abrar Hussain Zaidi. Bharam was sentenced to death by an ATC in the case registered against him at Nabi Bakhsh police station in 2010.

Nazim Jokhio case

An SHC bench issued notices to the prosecutor general and others on petitions filed by social organisations against the release of PPP Jam Awais in the Nazim Jokhio murder case. Awais was released after he reached a settlement with the victim's heirs. The petitioner's lawyer claimed that a lower court had also accepted the settlement over suppression of evidence.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2023.