KMC official’s killer sentenced to life in prison

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday sentenced the killer of a Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) official to life and the co-accused to 15 years in prison.

Accused Muhammad Irfan and co-accused Muhammad Kamran were convicted of murdering KMC Deputy Director Muhammad Ishaq in an attack on the municipal body’s anti-encroachment team in January 2014 in the jurisdiction of the New Karachi police station.

The KMC anti-encroachment team had claimed that they were not provided with necessary police protection. However, police officials had rejected the allegations and termed them to be “baseless”.

However, both Irfan and Kamran were arrested and tried for the murder, and as the prosecution proved the accusations against them, they were sentenced to life and 15 years in jail respectively.

The accountability court hearing a corruption reference against former Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) chairman Nisar Morai, vice-chairman Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and 12 other co-accused has fixed February 28 as the date to rehear the case.

Earlier, the judge had issued non-bailable arrest warrant for absconding accused Abdul Mannan and Abu Saeed Khan, and they were also reissued. The reference has been accepted by the administrative judge of the accountability courts against 14 former FCS officers.

The reference, which was transferred to the accountability court IV, claims that Morai, Siddiqui and 12 others were involved in massive corruption and making illegal appointments of more than 400 employees. Previously, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had picked up FCS officers Gul Muneer, Shaukat Baloch, Haji Wali Muhammad and Abu Bakar, and then interrogated them after obtaining physical remand from the relevant court.