Jatoi retrial

Five years on, a case that had outraged many Pakistanis is heading towards a predictable direction. The murder of young Shahzaib Khan, the son of DSP Aurangzeb Khan, by Shahrukh Jatoi, the son of an influential business tycoon, in Karachi in 2012 had led to public outcry. But very quickly it became clear that justice may not be done. Shahzaib’s family began to back down from the case – citing threats to their life. A year later, the victim’s family pardoned Jatoi and his accomplices but because the case had been registered under anti-terrorism provisions, the family of the deceased could not withdraw it. An anti-terrorism court handed a death sentence to Jatoi. Now, with media attention having moved away from the case, the Sindh High Court has set aside the anti-terrorism court conviction, arguing that the murder did not fall under the ambit of anti-terrorism courts. The court also cited procedural errors. A retrial has been ordered in a sessions court, and now thanks to the pardon issued by the victim’s family, there is every possibility that he will receive a more lenient punishment or even walk free. It almost seems as if the state was trying to let him escape justice from the very start and has now succeeded in doing so when attention is off the case.
The application of anti-terrorism provisions to murder cases is a controversial issue – and makes little sense in any rational context for the operation of law. The fact is that the ambit of anti-terrorism courts has been expanded to such an extent that they regularly end up hearing cases that bear no connection to terrorism as it is commonly understood. But, some argue that in the presence of the Qisas and Diyat provisions, they have also become the only way to ensure that murder trials reach a conclusion. It is once such cases move to the superior courts that the difference between rich murderers and poor murderers is on display. If you can afford a powerful lawyer, the anti-terrorism provisions are likely to be struck off. Those who do not have the connections of someone like Shahrukh Jatoi end up receiving capital punishment for crimes that are hardly terroristic in nature. In the case of Jatoi, the murder regulations themselves should be enough to find him guilty and sentence him. That is where the trouble with existing law lies – and there needs to be a serious debate on blood-money provisions and their process in the murder laws. Justice, though, needs to be done. This is the only way to store faith in the judicial system. Otherwise, more Shahzaib Khans will continue to be murdered with impunity by the elite.