NAB chairman’s stepbrother acquitted in parents’ murder case

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday acquitted three men convicted for killing the parents of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, over insufficient evidence.

In January 2016, a Sessions court had handed down death sentence on two counts to Naveed Iqbal, step-brother of the incumbent NAB chairman, Abbas Shakir and Ameen Ali for killing the couple. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 550,000 each on the convicts.

Malik Abdul Hameed, 80, and Zarina, 70, were found murdered in their house on January 11, 2011. A case was registered against unknown suspects on the complaint of Saeed Iqbal, brother of Justice Iqbal. Later, the police arrested the convicts and alleged that Naveed Iqbal in connivance with other two suspects had murdered the judge’s parents over a monetary dispute.

The LHC division bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry announced the verdict while allowing appeals of the convicts against their sentence.Defence counsel Nighat Saeed Mughal advocate argued that the police arrested the convicts on mere suspicion after the incident and there was no eye-witness of the incident. She submitted that it was a case of circumstantial evidence but the prosecution failed to produce incriminating evidence against his clients.

The counsel said the trial court convicted the appellants despite the fact that there was no solid evidence against them. She pleaded the court to acquit the convicts after setting aside their sentence. However, a prosecutor opposed the appeals and submitted that the trial court handed down the sentence on merit as sufficient evidence was available against the convicts.

After hearing detailed arguments from both the sides, the bench acquitted the convicts after setting aside their sentence while allowing their appeals.