KARACHI: The widow of slain Nazim Jokhio on Tuesday approached the Sindh High Court against an inordinate delay in filing the final charge sheet in a case pertaining to the murder of her husband by the prosecution before an antiterrorism court.

Shereen Jokhio filed a petition before the SHC stating that on Feb 8, a judicial magistrate had directed the investigating officer (IO) to file the final charge sheet in the Nazim Jokhio murder case to the administrative judge of ATCs, Karachi since the offences came within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

However, she contended that the final charge sheet had been withheld by the prosecution department for the past several weeks without any lawful justification and a prosecutor kept filing applications before the magistrate for grant of more time on the pretext of a detailed scrutiny.

Shereen Jokhio seeks security for family, day-to-day trial by ATC

Nazim Jokhio, 27, was found murdered at a Malir farmhouse of Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Jam Awais in November 2021. The MPA, his MNA brother Jam Abdul Karim and others have been booked for allegedly torturing Jokhio to death after he stopped their foreign guests from hunting houbara bustard.

Citing the home secretary, prosecutor general-Sindh and the IO of the case as respondents, the petitioner stated that before the order of magistrate, a sessions court had dismissed the pre-arrest bail applications of some suspects on the point of jurisdiction and ruled that the murder was an act of terrorism under the ATA.

She submitted that the respondents had failed to conduct the murder investigation fairly as the call data record was not collected and geofencing had not been carried out while the prosecution department had been withholding the final charge sheet despite the passage of magistrate’s order.

She stated that currently, the charge sheet was lying with the prosecutor general office for the past several weeks without any progress.

The petitioner contended that she was under immense pressure, inducement and coercion at the hand of influential accused persons, who belonged to the ruling political party of Sindh, to enter into a compromise agreement with them.

She said that the respondents were directly and indirectly supporting the accused persons and the fundamental rights of her and her family to a fair trial must be to protected.

She expressed the apprehension that her and her children’s lives were also at stake.

She sought directives for the prosecutor general to submit the final charge sheet before the administrative judge of the ATCs without any further delay.

She asked the court to order the home secretary and police to provide protection/security to the petitioner and her children.

The petitioner further sought the arrest of the MNA and directive for the trial court to decide the case expeditiously by holding day-to-day trial.

In the final charge sheet submitted before the magistrate, the IO had named the detained MPA and four others as accused and shown the MNA and three other as absconders in the case.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022