SHC seeks jail roll of convicts in Daniel Pearl murder case

The Sindh High Court on Monday directed the jail authorities to file the jail roll of three convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the American journalist Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case.

The direction came during a hearing of appeals filed by Ahmed Omer Sheikh and three others against their convictions. Pearl, a US national and the South Asian region bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped on January 23, 2002, in Karachi and later beheaded by his captors when their demands were not met. The appellants’ counsel sought provision of facilities to the convicts as per the jail manual.

The main convict, Ahmed Omer Sheikh, was sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing the journalist, and his three accomplices – Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil – were sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs500,000 each by a Hyderabad anti-terrorism court on July 15, 2002.

The counsel of the appellants, Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil, submitted that their clients were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court in 2002 and they have almost completed the major portion of their jail terms. They said that the jail roll of the appellants be called from the jail authorities to examine details of their undergone sentences.

A division bench, headed by Justice Aftab Ahmed Goror, directed the relevant officials to submit the jail roll and adjourned the hearing till February 6. Hashim and other co-accused – Asim alias Qasim, Hassan, Ahmed Bhai, Imtiaz Siddiqui and Amjad Farooqui – were declared proclaimed offenders by the court. The appeals of the convicts have been pending at the SHC since 2002.