SC dismisses Rana Maqbool’s appeal

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court shot down on Monday Punjab public prosecution secretary Rana Maqbool Ahmed’s appeal challenging a Sindh High Court verdict which revived an attempted murder charge against him.

In 1999, President Asif Zardari who was in prison at the time, had accused Ahmed of attempting to murder him. The trial court exonerated Ahmed but the SHC reversed this judgment when Zardari filed for a revision. The SHC’s April 2008 verdict not only revived the case, it also declared Ahmed a proclaimed offender and issued directives for the issuance of an arrest warrant.

But the three-member bench headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani hearing Ahmed’s appeal upheld the SHC ruling. Ahmed’s counsel Akram Sheikh pleaded that the SHC was also not authorised to set aside the trial court’s order because Zardari filed for a revision three years after the trial court’s verdict. Since the application was time-barred, argued Sheikh, the high court could not issue an arrest warrant and revive the old case.

“Your petition, too, is time-barred – by 405 days,” observed Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa. To this, Sheikh argued that if Zardari could be granted concessionary leave to file a revision petition, so should his client.

“We understand the point you’re trying to raise regarding the status of both but we have before us just two parties to a dispute so please confine yourself to the legal points only,” chided Khosa. “Everyone is equal before the law; Ahmed is a proclaimed offender and should thus face trial.”

Sheikh also attempted to justify his client’s failure to appear before the SHC, saying his client’s life and liberty were at risk in Karachi. The counsel then asked the SC to transfer the case from the SHC to any other court of the country.

But Sheikh’s claims failed to impress the court. “We don’t have this issue before us; you should file a separate petition regarding this,” said Khosa.

Dismissing Ahmed’s petition, Jillani directed him to face trial in the SHC.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.