close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Terrorist’s appeal against death sentence on 24 counts dismissed

By our correspondents
April 11, 2017

LAHORE

The Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal of a terrorist convicted for death on 24 counts in the Faisalabad Club Chowk bomb blast case.

An anti-terrorism court had awarded the death sentence to Usman Ghani on 24 counts under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act and Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The convict through a counsel challenged the conviction and argued that he had no role in the incident. He said the police had arrested him merely on suspicion and failed to produce any evidence against him.

The prosecution said the convict had carried out a remote controlled blast at Club Chowk in Faisalabad in 2011 that claimed lives of 24 persons.

The police had arrested the convict soon after the blast and also recovered the remote control device from his custody.

A division bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Shehram Sarwar dismissed the appeal and upheld the sentence awarded by the trial court.

SHO: The Lahore High Court disposed of a farmer's petition and directed Noorpur Thal police station SHO to remain within the domain of law, not to do any illegal act and not to harass the petitioner.

A poor farmer approached the Lahore High Court on Monday seeking justice against some influential people for allegedly grabbing his 15 acre land in Khushab district with support of MPA Malik Waris Kallo.

Abdul Ghaffar, a resident of Beland village of Noorpur Tehsil, district Khushab, who had recently been released on parole in a case of abusing a senior police official and other sections, said he purchased 15 acre land from Ghulam Qasim Zargar in Rakh Mekan village who gave him possession in 2012.

Since then he had been doing farming on the land, he said. However, the petitioner alleged that Habib Ullah Saggo, who, he said, is principal of a local college, and his accomplice Abdul Aziz Saggo, deprived him of his land, lodged an FIR against him with local police station and got him detained in a fake case.

MPA Muhammad Waris Kallo from PP-42, Khushab, had been supporting the alleged land grabbers, the petitioner stated.

Being a poor farmer, he said, he had no support from anyone and had become victim of injustice. He stated the accused being an influential people ploughed his 7 acre land, attacked his home and deprived him of a water tap and other items.

The petitioner said the alleged land grabber also humiliated him before his family and other people. When he approached the local police station for action against them they arrested him and put him behind the bars, he said.

He alleged that MPA Kallo was supporting the influential party who also got his crop of chickpea harvested and ousted him from there.

Later, the alleged land grabbers, he said, with the support of local police got him convicted that he had abused Regional Police Officer and then put him in jail for four days.

Earlier, Abdul Ghaffar said they detained him in lockup of police station for 11 days. On October 6, 2016, the petitioner said he approached Assistant Commissioner of Noorpur Thal with application No 1648, seeking correction of record of ‘Gardawari’ (consolidation of revenue record for possession of land) but to no avail.

He said then he filed an application before then DCO Kinza Murtaza, his application number was 7630 but no action was taken against the alleged land grabbers.

He said now again he had filed an application before Assistant Commissioner of Noorpur Tehsil but the accused for being influential had been harvesting his crop worth Rs500,000.

The petitioner alleged that local police had been harassing him because he was released on parole in a case which he said was a fake case lodged by the local influential people against him.

After hearing his plea, Lahore High Court Justice Ch Mushtaq Ahmad directed Noorpur Thal police station SHO to remain within domain of law, not to do any illegal act and not to harass the petitioner in any manner whatsoever. The petition was disposed of.

dismissed:  The Lahore High Court has dismissed a petition challenging appointment of Dr Khalid Masood Gondal as professor of surgery King Edward Medical University and as vice president of Council of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan simultaneously.

Dr. sajid Hussain through his counsel Noshab A Khan pleaded that the rules did not allow anyone to hold two offices at the same time. However, he failed to answer court’s query to identify the rules.

Justice Ayesha A Malik dismissed the petition for being frivolous and ruled that no rule had been breached by Dr Gondal.