'Extrajudicial' killing: Order on Rangers plea against second FIR reserved

Zeeshan was shot dead near Nagan Chowrangi during a fight with his estranged wife.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved on Monday its verdict on a plea against an additional district and sessions judge's order to register another FIR on the murder of a civilian allegedly by a Rangers personnel.

Rehman Noor faces allegations of shooting dead a civilian, Zeeshan, in an extrajudicial manner near Nagan Chowrangi where he was having a fight with his wife.

An additional district judge (ADJ), Javed Akhtar Awan, while disposing of an application of the deceased's sister, Tasneem Shahid, had directed the New Karachi SHO to register a case against the Rangers official and the estranged wife of the deceased, if a cognisable offence was made out from the statement of the applicant.

Noor had, however, approached the high court, informing them that while an FIR of the incident was already registered, the victim's sister filed an application under Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), alleging that the New Karachi Police were not entertaining her request to register a case against the Rangers personnel.

According to his lawyer, Shahid had concealed facts from the relevant court to obtain an order for the registration of the second FIR despite the fact that New Karachi police ASI Raja Muhammad Rafiq had approached her to record her statement. She had, however, denied the request at the time, saying that she would record her statement after consulting her lawyer.

The petitioner had pleaded the court suspend the impugned order passed by the ADJ and also restrain the New Karachi police from registering a second FIR against him. Last week, an SHC bench had suspended the operation of the ADJ's order by granting a temporary stay order till the next date of hearing.

On Monday, a bench, headed by Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, reserved its order after hearing arguments from the parties.