KARACHI, March 23: The case of the Nishtar Park tragedy, in which more than 50 people, including several religious leaders, were killed and over 100 others wounded, has been lying pending in an anti-terrorism court here as the home department has yet to issue a notification to the trial court, permitting it to begin trial.

Court sources told Dawn that the case had been pending for over two years in anti-terrorism court V as the home department had not asked the trial court to conduct hearing inside the jail.

They added that the court had directed the Central Jail authorities to produce the accused before the court. However, the jail superintendent through a letter (No 10710, dated July 27, 2007) informed the court that since the accused were high-profile criminals and were also wanted in many other cases, the trial should be held inside the jail. The jail authorities in the letter also mentioned that a request in this regard had been made to the home department for granting permission to the trial court to conduct the hearing inside the jail.

The sources further said that the trial court was still waiting for the permission of the department concerned in this regard.

The case (FIR 71/06) was registered at the Soldier Bazaar police station under Sections 302, 324, 109, 120-B, 114/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 3/4 of the Explosive Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The police had arrested Mohammad Amin, Sultan Mahmood, Rahmatuallh and Mufti Zakir for their alleged involvement in the case and the court had remanded them in judicial custody.

Another case, registered in 2002 under the Explosive Act has met the same fate as the provincial home department has failed to issue a notification to the trial court, granting it permission to take up the case in spite of repeated requests and reminders by the trial court.

According to legal experts, a notification by provincial home department was mandatory in cases registered under the Explosives Act and inside jail trials, adding that the trial courts could not hear such cases until it was notified by the authority concerned.

The case (FIR 11/02) was registered against Hafiz Qasim Rasheed, son of Abdul Rasheed, under Section 4/5 of the Explosive Act read with 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. It has been pending in the court of the additional district and sessions judge III, West, due to the non-issuance of a notification by the home department.

According to the prosecution, Hafiz Qasim was arrested in July 21, 2002 in the Jackson police limits for possessing illegal weapons and a case (FIR 10/02) was registered against him under Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance. Police claimed that during the initial interrogation the accused revealed that he had buried explosives material in a vacant plot in Gulshan-i-Sikandar, Keamari, and had dug out a 625-gram bag of explosive substance from the pit.

Defence counsel Maqbool-ur-Rahmen said that in such cases permission under Section 7 of the Explosive Substance Act was mandatory and in case of noncompliance all the proceedings would be treated as void.

He criticized the home department for the delay in the grant of permission in the cases of explosive substance and alleged that the department had been deliberately and with mala fide intent using this tool to let cases against religious persons linger.

He said that in the case of Mufti Nasrullah the permission was granted after a delay of over two years while in the case of Maqsood Qureshi, three persons were arrested in an explosive substance case while two of them were dropped by the provincial government without any lawful authority. He further alleged that the home department was not working as an investigation agency.

Mr Rehman said that it had become a trend that the department concerned was issuing notifications to the relevant court to conduct proceeding in such cases with a minimum delay of two years.

Many attempts were made to contact the home secretary to know his version, but he could not be approached.