KARACHI, April 8: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction order of former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills Usman Farooqi in two corruption cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau.
The accused through his counsel had moved an application under Section VII of the National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, to the court seeking discharge of the conviction order.
The defence counsel submitted that since his client was a public office-holder and the case against him was registered in 1997, he deserved indemnity given under the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
NAB counsel M. Ali Waris Lari did no oppose the plea.
The bench comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi set aside the conviction after recording arguments from both sides.
The order said that the accused was entitled to getting indemnity under Section VII of the NRO.
Mr Farooqi was convicted in March 2001 in two references (50/2000) and (52/2000) filed by NAB (Sindh) on the charges of corruption, and an accountability court had sentenced him to seven years in jail and a fine of Rs1.5 million besides barring him from holding any public office for 21 years.
He was charged with causing a loss of Rs40 million to the national exchequer in the purchase of computers for the Pakistan Steel Mills and also obtaining pecuniary benefits for his family and himself through corrupt practices.
Asif’s rejected pleas
Justice Syed Pir Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday adjourned till April 9 the hearing of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s quashment application in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case.
The quashment application was moved under Section 567-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, read with Section 439 of CrPC, by Mr Zardari’s counsel.
After the completion of the arguments from both sides on the application, the court adjourned the hearing till Wednesday to seek clarification on certain points, and directed the applicant counsel to produce copies of the acquittal applications before the court that had been rejected in 2002 and 2005.
The state’s counsel, Ilyas Khan, while resuming his arguments said that Mir Murtaza Bhutto had time and again shared his apprehensions with his colleagues that a conspiracy was being hatched against him. Opposing the quashment plea, he said that at this stage the applicant’s acquittal would affect the co-accused in the case.
He argued that the trial court and the Sindh High Court had dismissed the acquittal pleas of the applicant in 2002 and 2005, respectively, adding that the applicant had no new ground and presented the same grounds in this application that had been mentioned in the previous ones.
He read out the statement of Ishaq Khakwani, in which he had stated that Mir Murtaza Bhutto had telephoned him on April 19, 1996 and said that something wrong was going to happen and on the following day he was murdered.
He further submitted that Mr Zardari and Ms Benazir Bhutto had asked him not to return to the county when he was staying in Syria.
Representing the widow of Ashique Jatoi, Advocate Sarfaraz Khan Tanoli opposed the application and said that at this stage it would cause prejudice to the co-accused.
Earlier, applicant’s counsel, Shaukat Zubadi, submitted that the prosecution had failed to produce any direct evidence against Asif Zardari for his involvement in the alleged crime, and said that none of the witnesses examined by the trial court had so far mentioned the applicant’s involvement in the case.
He argued that the medico-legal officer in his statement recorded in the trial court had said that Murtaza Bhutto was seriously wounded when he was rushed to the hospital and was not in a position to speak. Therefore, the prosecution’s version that he had stated something against the applicant appeared to be false, he added.
He concluded that three FIRs of the case were lodged but Mr Zardari’s name was not mentioned in any of them. Mr Zubadi was assisted by advocates Shahadat Awan and Abubakr Zardari.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, his close aide Ashique Hussain Jatoi and six other workers and supporters of the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) were killed on Sept 20, 1996, near his residence in Clifton in an alleged shootout with police. Asif Zardari, Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Durrani, Masood Sharif, Shahid Hayat, Rai Mohammed Tahir, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Agha Mohammed Jameel and other policemen are accused in the case. The case has been pending in the court of the additional district and sessions judge II, East, since 1996.
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