Sabzazar Case: CJ recuses himself

appeal filed by mother of two brothers who she says were gunned down by the police in a staged encounter in 1998

LAHORE:

Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Wednesday recused himself from hearing an appeal against the acquittal of the chief minister in the Sabzazar staged encounter case.

The chief justice said that he had appeared in the case as an additional advocate general and so he would refer the appeal to another bench.

The appeal has been filed by Khurshid Khanum, mother of two brothers who she says were gunned down by the police in a staged encounter in 1998, through her counsel Aftab Ahmad Bajwa. An FIR was registered against 12 people including Sharif, who was chief minister then, in March 2001.

In 2008, an anti-terrorism court acquitted Sharif after the complainant, Saeeduddin (the father of the two brothers) withdrew, as did the families of the other deceased. In her appeal, Khanum pleaded that she had not settled with or agreed to pardon Sharif so the court should not have acquitted him.

She believes that her sons’ death was a result of CM’s alleged directives to police to kill criminals rather than arrest and prosecute them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2011.