SHC irked over respondents’ no-show in Murtaza Bhutto murder appeal hearing

Karachi: Taking exception to their absence, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to former Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) Wajid Ali Durrani and other acquitted co-accused police officials on an appeal against their acquittal in the Murtaza Bhutto murder case.

At the time of the murder of Murtaza, Durrani was serving as the District South SSP. He along with then DIG Shoaib Suddle, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) director Masood Sharif, then Saddar ASP Shahid Hayat, then ASP Clifton Rai Mohammad Tahir and other police personnel was acquitted by an additional district and sessions judge on December 5, 2009 from the murder charges of Murtaza Bhutto and his companions in an alleged shootout.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto observed that the respondents Durrani, Mohammad Tahir, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Ghulam Mustafa, Ahmed Khan, Raja Hameed, Gulzar Khan, Zafar Iqbal, Faisal Hafeez, Abdul Basit and Zakir Mehmood were absent without intimation.

The high court issued notices to the respondents of the case through the Clifton SHO and directed the SSP concerned to ensure service of the notices to those respondents who had been called absent.

The SHC was informed by the counsel of the respondents that some co-accused, including former IB chief Masood Sharif, former Karachi police chief Shahid Hayat and other police officials Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Agha Mohammad Jamil, Ghulam Shabbir and Muslim Shah had died.

The high court directed the investigation officer to verify the death of these respondents and submit a report on the next hearing.

The bench also directed a counsel for the late Shahid Hayat, who had also challenged acquittal of six persons of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Shaheed Bhutto group in an encounter case, to satisfy the court about the status of the present complainant as the appellant had passed away. The high court directed the office to fix the matter on December 13.

The appeal filed on behalf of complainant Noor Mohammad stated that the trial court in an astonishing judgment had acquitted all the defendants and hence indirectly adjudicated that there was no one responsible for the eight deaths and four injuries caused by the police on the night of September 20, 1996.

The appellant’s counsel questioned the legality of the trial court’s judgment submitting that the judgment was passed through a short oral order on December 5 while the written judgment was issued on December 8 therefore the impugned judgment was a nullity in the eye of the law as it was announced without its having been written or signed by the learned trial court judge.

The high court was prayed to set aside the trial court judgment as it was empowered and justified to re-examine the evidence and draw its own conclusions from it.

Murtaza, brother of former slain prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, was killed along with seven others, including his close aide Ashiq Jatoi, on September 20, 1996 in an alleged shootout near his residence in Clifton when he was coming after attending a party meeting in Surjani Town.