A local court in Karachi reserved on Thursday its order on the framing of charges against 14 suspects nominated in the Nazim Jokhio murder case's final charge sheet filed by the prosecution last week, after a delay of around two months.

In the final charge-sheet, the investigating officer has nominated detained PPP MPA Jam Awais, the primary suspect in the case, his brother, PPP MNA Jam Abdul Karim, and their guards and servants on allegations of torturing Nazim to death at Awais' farmhouse, called the Jam House, on the outskirts of Karachi's Malir for resisting houbara bustard hunting by the lawmakers' Arab guests and filming them while they were hunting in his village.

When the matter came up for hearing before Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Altaf Hussain today, the judge reserved his decision regarding the framing of charges against the 14 suspects — nine less than those nominated in the interim charge sheet submitted to the court on December 21 last year — after hearing arguments from both sides.

In the final charge sheet, the IO has accused Awais of murdering Nazim in the final charge-sheet punishable under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). He has also accused Karim and his servant Niaz Salar of keeping the victim in their custody, intimidating his family and concealing evidence or giving false information, punishable under Sections 506-B, 34 and 35 of the PPC.

The IO has charge-sheeted three other absconding suspects, namely Muhammad Meraj, Atta Muhammad and Zahid, under Section 201 of the PPC for causing evidence to disappear or giving false information.

He has charged another suspect, Jamal Ahmed alias Jamal, with criminal intimidation under Section 506-B of the PPC.

The IO has showed Karim, Salar, Meraj, Atta Muhammad and Zahid as absconders in the final charge-sheet.

The IO has stated that no evidence has been found against six other suspects, namely Muhammad Khan Jokhio, Ishaq Jokhio, Saleem Salar, Muhammad Soomar Salar, Doda alias Dodo Jokhio, Ahmed Khan Shoro and Abdul Razzaq Jokhio. Therefore, their names were discharged from the case under Section 169 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Moreover, he has removed Sections 365 (kidnapping) and 109 (abetment) of the PPC from the case, maintaining that no evidence of the victim being kidnapped has been found during the course of the investigation.

At today's hearing, Advocate Mazhar Junejo, the counsel for the complainant, moved an application before the court under Section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, seeking the inclusion of the terrorism charge in the case's first information report (FIR).

He had requested the same at the previous hearing as well.

The counsel argued today that the offence committed by the suspects fell within the ambit of terrorism as Nazim's murder had spread fear and panic among the people.

He urged the court to direct the IO to include Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 in the FIR.

He also objected to the removal of kidnapping charges from the challan and sought the nomination of six suspects in the charge sheet who names had been discharged from it.

Defence counsels Mustafa Mahesar and Wazir Khoso opposed his plea, arguing that the matter did not fell within the ambit of terrorism, and urged the judge to dismiss the application.

IO's account of murder

According to the charge sheet, an Arab Sheikh went hunting with his servants, Ghulam Haider Jokhio, and Meer Hasan Brohi, and a Sindh Wildlife Department’s game officer, Ahmed Khan Shoro, on November 2, when they came across Nazim and Abdul Aziz who were returning home on a motorcycle.

“Nazim questioned the Arab Sheikh about having a hunting permit which led to an altercation between the two. The latter broadcasted it live on Facebook, which was when the foreigner snatched the mobile phone from him.”

Later, the wildlife official, Shoro, Ghulam and Brohi returned the cell phone to Nazim on the directives of the Arab Sheikh, the IO said in the charge sheet.

The IO said the Jam brothers took this incident as an insult to them and pressured Nazim's brother and complainant in the case, Afzal Jokhio, to force his brother to delete the video of the Arab Sheikhs and also apologise to them. But, Nazim did not listen to them despite threats of dire consequences.

“Instead, Nazim uploaded yet another video on Facebook where he said he was being pressured to delete the earlier video clip.”

On the directives of Karim, Niaz Salar, Muhammad Soomar Salar and Dodo Salar brought Nazim and Afzal to the Jam House in a car with his "consent".

On their way, Nazim got out of the vehicle and went to his house, where he sent a voice message to his friend Advocate Mazhar Junejo, saying that "Karim's men had come to take them.”

At the farmhouse, Karim slapped Nazim, snatched his cell phone and deleted the video clips of the Arab Sheikh, and then handed over Nazim to his guards, Meer Ali and Haider Ali, who detained him in the guard’s room, while Afzal was dropped off at home.

Quoting sources, the IO said: “Awais, who was drunk at the time, went to the guard’s room, where he, along with guards Meer Ali and Haider Ali, tortured Nazim Jokhio by kicking him and using batons and then left.”

The IO said Nazim died due to severe torture, about which Karim came to know in the morning. He later tried to portray to the police that Nazim died during a quarrel at Jam House.