Man accuses CM, Tappi of trying to take over his land

Lower court reserves verdict during Monday’s hearing.

KARACHI: A lower court reserved the verdict on a case against the chief minister and other Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders for an alleged cracker attack at Rujhanullah Afridi’s house a week earlier.

The district and sessions judge, West, Shah Nawaz Tariq, was hearing the arguments from both sides on Monday.

The applicant, Rujhanullah Afridi, claimed that a cracker was hurled at his house at 2am on March 10 with the intention of killing him. Afridi said that he was present at home with his family at the time of the attack and luckily they all survived.

Afridi, who is associated with the PPP’s Naheed Khan group, moved the application under Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code and cited Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and PPP leader Faisal Raza Abidi, Najmi Alam and Muzaffar Owais Tappi as respondents.

According to Afridi, Tappi, who is believed to be a foster brother of President Asif Ali Zardari, was trying to occupy his five-acre land. He threatened Afridi to sell his land for Rs10 million and, when he refused, his house was attacked, claimed Afridi.

On Thursday, a sessions court had issued a notice to the SITE SHO for March 18, when sub-inspector Tufail Ahmed appeared before the court on behalf of the SHO and recorded his comments. Ahmed said that the police inspected the place and recorded the statements of two neighbours, who claimed that no such incident took place.



Ahmed submitted copies of the statements to the court. The police have also submitted an investigation report without registering an FIR, which was challenged by the counsels of the complainant.

Rejecting the police comments, lawyers Muhammad Khan Buriro and Mubashir Ahmed Mirza told the court that he was bound to register a case against the suspects, and cannot probe the case until an FIR was lodged.

District public prosecutor Syed Anwar Shah explained that no case could be registered against the chief minister and other senators as they have immunity under Article 242 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Afridi said that the SHO and SSP of SITE police station had refused to receive his application. He requested the court register a case.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2013.