Eight MQM workers declared proclaimed offenders

Karachi
A court declared eight workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as proclaimed offenders in 20-year-old cases registered at the Saeedabad police station.
The accused include Muhammad Ismail, Ejaz alias Chottu, Izhar alias Jugnu, Nabi Bukhsh, Haider, Tipu Sultan, Habib alias Munna and Asghar alias Kana. The cases against these accused involved those of murder and were lodged at the Saeedabad police station between 1994 and 1995. The offences include attack on a mobile van and the murder of a policeman Ghulam Murtaza.
These eight were involved in attacking a police mobile and killing a policeman, Ghulam Murtuza. These workers were acquitted in 2007 after the then president Pervez Musharraf issued the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in 2007, granting amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats accused of corruption, murder or terrorism. However, the Supreme Court in 2009 declared the NRO as null and void after a full bench declared to be contradictory to the constitution, resulting in reopening of all cases against the accused.
In March, a court of additional district and sessions judge at the judicial complex, headed by Tariq Mehmood Khoso, had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of some 34 suspects.