Justice delayed: Shan Khusro murder trial lingers on

Seven months since framing of charges, no witness statements recorded.

LAHORE:

Seven months since prosecution witnesses were summoned and charges framed against Shan Khusro, son of former Lahore commissioner Pervez Khusro, his murder trial has not progressed.

Shan is alleged to have murdered his classmate Hamza Elahi in June 2012 by shooting him in the head, but the accused has claimed the incident was an accident.

After the challan of the case was submitted on July 27, 2012, the court set a date of August 6 for framing charges and distributing case copies. The hearing was delayed till August 28, when case copies were distributed. Shan’s counsel complained that complete copies were not provided and later submitted an acquittal application. Shan was eventually charged with murder on January 19, 2013, and the prosecution witnesses were summoned for February 16.

Ten witnesses turned up for the hearing, but the counsel for the accused did not. The case was put off till March 9 and then March 27 and adjourned without proceedings on both occasions due to a lawyers’ strike. The next six hearings were also adjourned as the defence counsel did not turn up. The July 20 hearing was again adjourned due to a lawyer’s strike, while the defence lawyer failed to turn up for the next hearing on August 17. The case is now to be taken up on September 5, when, yet again, the statements of prosecution witnesses are scheduled to be recorded.

Advocate Sohail Dar, the counsel for the complainant, blamed the defence attorney for the delay, saying he did not turn up for hearings and sent a junior lawyer in his stead to ask for adjournments. Defence counsel Burhan Moazzam did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent by this correspondent.

Fazal Elahi, the father of the deceased, told Burki police station that his son had gone out with Shan Khusro on the night of June 2 and had not returned home. He found out the next day that his son’s body had been found in Defence Phase VI.

Shan later told the police that he and Hamza had gone out for a drive and for some firing, using an unlicensed gun that he had got from a personal contact in Farooqabad.

Shan said that while he was trying to remove a bullet from the chamber of the gun, which he was holding in his lap, it accidentally went off and a bullet hit Hamza near the right ear. Hamza had been driving the car and been on the phone at the time.

Shan said that Hamza had been killed instantly and, in a panic, he had pushed him out the car and slid into the driver’s seat.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2013.