Immediate notice to be issued in Fakhra Younus case
Court’s notice will direct prime suspect, Bilal Mustafa Khar, to submit his reply by January 15, 2013.
KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court ordered the office on Thursday to issue a notice within an hour to Bilal Mustafa Khar - the prime suspect in the Fakhra Younus acid attack case - to submit his reply by January 15, 2013.
This direction came when the judges were informed that notice had not been issued to the son of former Punjab governor and Pakistan Peoples Party leader, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, despite the courts instructions on November 6.
“It is intriguing to note that on each date, for some reason or the other, either the notices are not issued or response to the same is not received,” observed Justice Maqbool Baqir, who headed the bench.
The bench ordered that the notice should be issued within an hour to Bilal through all possible means, including by post, courier and fax.
Twelve years after the case first surfaced, three human rights organisations approached the court to seek justice for the victim’s family.
Allegedly attacked by Bilal in 2000, Younus jumped to her death in Rome on March 17. Seven months after the suicide, human rights bodies have challenged the acquittal of the suspect by the Sessions judge.
Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer representing petitioners Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Shirkat Gah and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, said that the acquittal on December 16, 2003 came because the four eyewitnesses refused to identify Bilal in the trial court due to his “influence”.
The trial court, the lawyer contended, had also failed to consider the evidence available on record.
He asked the high court to summon the entire record of Younus’ case from the trial court, examine it and remand it back to the court for a retrial.
Siddiqui pointed out that the government had enacted the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act 2011 through which changes were made to the previous law. He added that Fakhra’s case should be re-investigated.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.
The Sindh High Court ordered the office on Thursday to issue a notice within an hour to Bilal Mustafa Khar - the prime suspect in the Fakhra Younus acid attack case - to submit his reply by January 15, 2013.
This direction came when the judges were informed that notice had not been issued to the son of former Punjab governor and Pakistan Peoples Party leader, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, despite the courts instructions on November 6.
“It is intriguing to note that on each date, for some reason or the other, either the notices are not issued or response to the same is not received,” observed Justice Maqbool Baqir, who headed the bench.
The bench ordered that the notice should be issued within an hour to Bilal through all possible means, including by post, courier and fax.
Twelve years after the case first surfaced, three human rights organisations approached the court to seek justice for the victim’s family.
Allegedly attacked by Bilal in 2000, Younus jumped to her death in Rome on March 17. Seven months after the suicide, human rights bodies have challenged the acquittal of the suspect by the Sessions judge.
Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer representing petitioners Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Shirkat Gah and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, said that the acquittal on December 16, 2003 came because the four eyewitnesses refused to identify Bilal in the trial court due to his “influence”.
The trial court, the lawyer contended, had also failed to consider the evidence available on record.
He asked the high court to summon the entire record of Younus’ case from the trial court, examine it and remand it back to the court for a retrial.
Siddiqui pointed out that the government had enacted the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act 2011 through which changes were made to the previous law. He added that Fakhra’s case should be re-investigated.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.