KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the prosecutor general Sindh and the complainant party on an application filed by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) against an order of trial court in Nazim Jokhio murder case.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro asked them to file reply till May 20.

The NCHR, through its lawyer Jibran Nasir, filed a criminal revision application before the SHC against the April 27 order of an antiterrorism court.

The counsel argued that the NCHR had approached the ATC to become intervener in the case, but the court in the impugned order said that it will decide the jurisdiction of the case first and then pending applications including the one filed by NCHR will be decided.

He contended that the application of NCHR should be heard first by the ATC in the interests of justice and pleaded to set aside the ATC’s order in question.

The 27-year-old victim, Nazim Jokhio, was found beaten to death at Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Jam Awais Bijjar’s farmhouse in Malir, and Afzal Jokhio, brother of the slain activist, nominated the MPA along with his brother MNA Jam Karim Bijjar, as well as their servants for allegedly torturing Nazim to death as he earned the ire of influential for stopping their foreign guests from hunting houbara bustard on Nov 3, 2021.

ATC defers case jurisdiction verdict

An antiterrorism court deferred the announcement of its order on the fate of the Nazim Jokhio murder charge sheet till May 12, from which the investigating officer had removed the names of two sitting Pakistan Peoples Party lawmakers as accused.

On Tuesday, the ATC-XV judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, was set to pronounce his verdict reserved on April 29 on the question of jurisdiction of the incumbent court to conduct trial in the case.

At the outset, Advocate Jibran Nasir, who represented the NHCR, submitted that that his client had filed a revision application with the SHC against the incumbent court’s April 29 order that the NHRC’s locus standi to become intervener in the trial proceedings would be decided after deciding jurisdiction of the case. He told the judge that the revision plea was fixed yesterday (Tuesday) before SHC, which has been requested to allow the NHRC to join the trial proceedings to advance arguments on the jurisdiction of the case before the trial court determine the same.

Therefore, he requested the judge to defer pronouncement of his order on the jurisdiction of the case until the NHRC’s application was decided by the SHC.

Allowing request, the judge deferred pronouncement of his verdict on the jurisdiction of the case and fixed the matter on May 12 for announcement of the same.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022