Lahore High Court sentences blasphemy convict to death
The convict, Zulfiquar Ali was also fined Rs1 million. Eleven witnesses had recorded statements against him. The counsel for defence said that his client was mentally unsound.
The counsel said that he had been confined to the mental ward of district jail hospital since 2008. He said that due to mental illness, he was unaware of the nature of offence that he was accused of. The judge observed that Ali had not pleaded to mental weakness in his statement. The judge also said that a mentally challenged man never admitted to being mentally ill.
He convicted Ali of blasphemy due to the paucity of contrary evidence.
Police officials to appear before judicial tribunal
Ten police officials would appear before the one-man judicial tribunal probing the Model Town incident on Monday (today).
The former Lahore operations deputy inspector-General (DIG) and nine superintendents of police (SPs) would file their affidavits regarding the Model Town violence.
The officials are DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar, SP Tariq Aziz, SP Maroof Wahla, SP Awais Malik, SP Umar Virk, SP Farrukh Raza, SP Muhammad Nadeem, SP Rana Muhammad Rizwan, SP Abdul Rehman Shirazi and SP Salman Khan.
The tribunal has also ordered cellular companies to provide the phone records of the officers. A representative of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the incident had provided the phone numbers of the officers and former law minister Rana Sanaullah to the tribunal. He said that the JIT had asked the authorities concerned to verify the numbers. The tribunal has held three hearings over the week.
Judge orders PBF to return passports
LHC ordered Pakistan Basketball Federation Secretary (PBF) Khawar Shah to return the passports of national team members last week.
The counsel for the team members said that his clients’ passports were obtained for a Canadian basketball tournament. The counsel said that the federation had failed to return the passports to the players despite the end of the tournament.
The counsel for the PBFS said that the passports had been retained because some national team members had disappeared 10 years ago in a foreign country due to which Pakistan had been banned from several international basketball events.
The judge ordered Khawar Shah to return the passports to the players by the next hearing or risk being imprisoned.
Contempt of court
Justice Ayesha Malik issued a contempt of court notice to Supreme Court Advocate Pervez Mir for alleged misbehavior. Mir had appeared before the court regarding a residential quarter allotment. The court has directed him to file a reply by July 21.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2014.
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Pakistan should must abolish 'The blasphemy law' along with 'Hudood Ordinance' which were promulgated in Zia's era or atleast moderate them , to usher in a new era of modernity & tolerance........
The blasphemy law must be abolished.