SHC’s special bench to hear Shahzeb murder case from Feb 19

The Sindh High Court’s special bench constituted to hear the Shahzeb murder case against Shahrukh Jatoi and other co-accused will start its proceedings from February 19.

The SHC chief justice had constituted a special bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, following the Supreme Court’s judgment that set aside the high court’s previous verdict in which the SHC had struck down the conviction awarded by an anti-terrorism court and remanded back the case to the relevant sessions court for de novo trial.

The SHC on November 28 had set aside the anti-terrorism court’s conviction of Shahrukh Jatoi and three other co-accuse observing that terrorism laws were misapplied by the police and the anti-terrorism court’s trial proceedings against appellants were not proper. The court had declared that the killing of Shahzeb Khan, who was brutally murdered in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on December 24, 2012, was a case of “personal vendetta” and ordered that the trial proceedings be remanded back to the sessions court concerned for de novo trial.

Shahrukh Jatoi along with Nawab Siraj Ali Talpur were sentenced to death while Siraj’s brother, Nawab Sajjad Ali Talpur, with his employee, Ghulam Murtaza Lashari, were sentenced to life imprisonment by the ATC on June 7, 2013 having found them guilty of murdering the private university student.

The brutal killing of Shahzeb allegedly by the persons belonging to influential families sparked public outrage and protest demonstrations by the civil society and ultimately the Supreme Court also took suo moto notice over the incident and ordered police to arrest the culprits and prosecuted them without any delay.

Detention cases

The SHC directed the federal and provincial law officers to file comments on a petition filed against the detention of an education department officer missing since January 17.

Family of the education director submitted that Shoaib Ahmed Khan went to office on January 17 but did not return home. The court was requested to direct the police and law enforcement agencies to ascertain his whereabouts and produce him before the court.

In another detention case, the court directed police to register a case on complaint of a citizen who alleged that his brother, Irfan Basarat, was picked up by the Rangers during a raid at his house situated in Malir area. The court directed the police and law enforcement agencies to submit a progress report with regard to the efforts for recovery of the missing persons on March 21.