KARACHI: An antiterrorism court declared on Friday that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief and others were proclaimed offenders in a 1997 triple murder case.

Mohammed Minhaj Qazi, alias Asad, with his accomplices has been booked in the murder of the then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (now renamed K-Electric) Shahid Hamid, his driver, and a guard in the Defence Housing Authority in 1997.

Police had submitted an investigation report in which they charge-sheeted Qazi as one of the alleged shooters saying that he and Saulat Mirza with their two accomplices had fired at the KESC MD’s car with Kalashnikovs.

They also named MQM chief Altaf Hussain, party convener Nadeem Nusrat, London-based MQM leader Sohail Zaidi and two workers — Rashid Akhtar and Athar Hussain — as absconders in the supplementary charge sheet.

Subsequently, the court twice issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the absconders, but the police failed to execute the same.

On the previous hearing, the court directed the investigating officer to start proceedings against the absconding accused under Sections 87 (proclamation for persons absconding) and 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the criminal procedure code and submit the report.

The IO submitted the report declaring the MQM chief and others proclaimed offenders. ATC-V judge Mohammed Jawaid Alam bifurcated their case and kept it dormant till their arrest. The court is likely to indict the detained suspect on Aug 5.

An ATC had already sentenced MQM worker Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, to death in 1999 in this case and he was executed in Machh jail in Balochistan in May last year.

Judgement reserved in MQM worker murder case

An antiterrorism court reserved on Friday its judgement in a case pertaining to the murder of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist till Aug 1.

Another MQM worker Syed Asif Ali has been charged with killing Waqas Shah during a pre-dawn raid carried out by Rangers at the MQM’s headquarters Nine Zero in March last year.

After hearing concluding arguments from both sides, ATC-IX judge Farman Ali Kanasro reserved the judgement for pronouncement till Aug 1.

The paramilitary force claimed to have arrested the suspect in Shahdadpur in June last year and said that he was also a political worker and confessed to have killed the young activist.

Later, he was handed over to police and they also claimed that the crime weapon was found on a lead given by the accused.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Azizabad police station.

Later, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 was also incorporated in the case while the accused was also booked under the Sindh Arms Act, 2013.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016