SHC sets aside life term sentence of Afaq, Amir in murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday set aside life imprisonment awarded to Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) chairman Afaq Ahmed and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Amir Khan in a murder case.

Ahmed and Khan, when the latter was the vice chairman of the MQM-H before joining the MQM-P, were sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court for killing Mohammad Farooq, an activist of the rival MQM, in June 1992. According to the prosecution, the complainant, Ismail Qureshi, had alleged that MQM activists Khalid Jamil, Salman, Farooq and others were kidnapped by Haqiqi activists on June 19, 1992 in the Landhi area and later on the directives of Ahmed and Khan, the absconding co-accused killed Farooq.

The appellants’ counsels, Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi and Mohammad Farooq, contended that they had been falsely implicated in the case as there were material contradictions in the statements of the witnesses.

They said the other co-accused were earlier acquitted by the trial court and the names of the appellants were booked in the case after a re-investigation into the case. They said the case against the appellants was politically motivated as no evidence was produced with regard to the place of incident. They requested the high court to set aside the trial court order and acquit them of the prosecution charges.