KARACHI, May 27: The Sindh High Court reopened on Tuesday proceedings in PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari’s murder attempt case against former inspector-general of Sindh police Rana Maqbool Ahmed Khan, DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi, Central Prison superintendent Najaf Mirza, PML-N senator Saifur Rehman Khan and his brother Mujibur Rehman Khan.
The respondents were accused by Mr Zardari of unlawfully obtaining his physical custody from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and May 16, 1999, taking him to the CIA centre and torturing him to extract incriminatory statements. His tongue was slashed and he bled profusely but the police refused to register an FIR against the IG and covered up the incident as an attempt to commit suicide by the victim.
An inquiry by former Malir district and sessions judge Salman Ansari found that the wounds inside Mr Zardari’s mouth and other parts of his body could not be self-inflicted. An FIR was registered in February 2005 and the magistrate concerned sent the case up for trial by a sessions court. Investigation was assigned to an Artillery Maidan inspector, who submitted a report to the seventh additional district and sessions judge (South) under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code recommending that the case be consigned to ‘C’ class and proceedings quashed for the absence of evidence and corroboration of the complainant’s version.
The ADSJ disposed of the case as prayed and acquitted all the accused on June 30, 2006.
Mr Zardari moved a revision application against the ADSJ’s order in the SHC.
The application came up before Justice Bin Yamin earlier this month and he asked the applicant’s counsel, Adnan Karim, to implead the accused as respondents. The application was amended as advised and two lawyers undertook to file powers of attorney on behalf of the respondents. The powers or vakalatnama were not filed and Advocate Adnan Karim requested the court to proceed as the ADSJ’s order was illegal on the face of record. The judge reserved his order on the plea on the previous date.
Announcing his decision on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Bin Yamin suspended the impugned order and ruled that the revision application would be heard and decided in accordance with the law. Meanwhile, the trial sessions court would resume hearing of the murder attempt case. The non-bailable warrants issued for the arrest of the accused would be executed to produce them at the trial.
Promotion review case
A division bench comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Mahmood Alam Rizvi issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary, the home secretary and the IG in a petition moved by police superintendents Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam and Muhammad Hassan Dal and deputy superintendents Syed Mohammad Ali Raza, Muhammad Wasif Qureshi and Abdul Hafeez Junejo.
The petitioners claimed that they received awards and out-of-turn promotions in recognition of their meritorious services under Section 9-A of the Sindh Civil Servants Act. Recounting their exploits, they said they risked their lives to bring peace to the city. The subsequent but prospective repeal of Section 9-A could not operate to deprive them of their vested rights with retrospective effect. Yet the IG has constituted a committee to review out-of-turn promotions.
The petitioners’ counsel, Gohar Iqbal, cited a Supreme Court judgment declaring that any benefit conferred on and fully vested in an employee could not be withdrawn by the employer department. The promotions were thus a closed chapter under the law and superior court judgments. Besides, he argued, the IG or provincial police officer was devoid of any authority to institute a probe into accelerated promotions.
Issuing notices for a date in office, the bench directed the office to clip together three identical petitions filed in 2005 for a consolidated hearing. Meanwhile, no adverse action shall be taken against the petitioners under the impugned notification setting up a review committee.
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