The wife of slain anchorperson Mureed Abbas moved an application before the district and sessions judge of District South, seeking the transfer of the DHA double murder case to another court, citing reservations over the conduct of the current trial court’s judge.
Anchorperson Zara Abbas, through her lawyer, stated that several discrepancies were found in the process under which the co-accused, Adil Zaman, was granted bail. She said that the apparent partiality of the judge could affect the case.
The jail authorities recently released Adil from prison after the South district’s additional sessions judge-IV cleared his bail in two cases against him, pertaining to abetting the murder and misusing a licensed weapon.
Zara requested the district and sessions judge South to transfer the case to the court of additional sessions judge-X. The court put off the application on July 7 to hear arguments from both the sides.
Adil and his brother Atif Zaman, the prime suspect, have been accused of murdering anchorperson Mureed Abbas and businessperson Khizar Hayat in DHA on July 9, 2019. Meanwhile, the trial court has fixed the Zaman brothers’ indictment for the murders on July 2, after adjourning the hearing yet again on the previous date because the defence side did not show up.
According to the charge sheet, Atif called Abbas and Hayat, who were his business partners, to different places in DHA on the pretext of returning some of the amounts he owed them. He first allegedly shot Hayat at a traffic signal and later went to kill Abbas in an office. CCTV footage shows Adil accompanying Atif during this spree.
The FIRs in the murder case were registered under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 325 (attempt to commit suicide) of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 23(1)a of the Sindh Arms Act at the Darakhshan police station.