Kanju, guards acquitted of murder

LAHORE
AN anti-terrorism court on Tuesday exonerated Mustafa Kanju alias Cheeko, son of former minister of Foreign Affairs Siddique Kanju, and his four guards from Zain murder case after all the witnesses deviated from their statements.
The court has acquitted Mustafa Kanju and his guards namely Ikramullah, Asif, Saifullah and Sadiq. It is pertinent to mention here that there were 13 prosecution witnesses in this case and all of them deviated from their previous statements.
Moreover, Sohail Afzal, complainant of the FIR and uncle of the deceased denied recognising the accused Kanju and his alleged accomplices. Sohail stated that he was unable to recognise Kanju as he reached the spot after happening of the incident.
The court has acquitted accused as no substantial evidence was available.
Kanju was arrested after a case was registered against him under 7-ATA and section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
He was accused of killing Zain, a 16-year-old orphan, and injuring Hussain, 18. It was stated that Kanju was going somewhere on his car bearing number plate LWK-77. As he reached Street No 04 of Cavalry Ground, his car collided with another car coming from the other side.
Following the accident, Kanju and his guards allegedly scuffled with the driver of the other car. Kanju got furious and allegedly resorted to indiscriminate firing.
As a result, Zain, 17, a resident of Street 11 of Cavalry Ground and his friend Husnain, who were passing by the road, fell victims to the firing while the driver of other car fled the scene unhurt. They were rushed to Services Hospital where Zain died.
schools fee case: Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday requested the Chief Justice to constitute a full bench to hear petitions against exorbitant fee structure of private schools.
Earlier, the judge also allowed a number of petitions filed by parents of the students at different private schools to become party in the case.
The judge issued notices to secretary schools and other respondents on the fresh petitions and referred the case to chief justice with a request to constitute a full bench to further hear the matter.
Plea dismissed: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking incorporation of Article 62 & 63 of the Constitution in Punjab Local Government Act 2013 for scrutiny of the candidates.
A local leader of PTI, Zubair Niazi, filed the petition through Advocate Sheraz Zaka and pleaded that there was no criteria for the checking qualification/disqualification of the candidates participating in the LG polls.
The counsel argued that the Constitution provides eligibility criteria for the members of national and provincial assemblies but the LG law lacked a parameter to gauge the qualification of the candidates for the LG election. He asked the court to order the government to also include provisions of Article 62 & 63 of the Constitution in the Local Government Act.
Justice Shahid Karim, however, dismissed the petition for being not maintainable.
The judge observed that the court could not dictate the legislators.