KARACHI: Declaring that the murder of young student Jazlan was not an ‘act of terrorism’, an antiterrorism court on Tuesday directed the investigation officer of the case to submit a final charge sheet before a sessions court.

The ATC-XVI judge, who was conducting the trial in judicial complex inside the central prison, passed this order on an application filed by the counsel of one of the suspects.

Muhammad Faiz, his sons Hasnain, Irfan, Ahsan and their friend Inshal have been booked for killing Jazlan over a trivial dispute in Bahria Town Karachi.

Hasnain’s counsel Syed Qambar Abbas had moved an application under Section 23 (power to transfer cases to regular courts) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, arguing that the case did not fall within the ambit of Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the ATA.

He argued that the incumbent court had no jurisdiction to accept the charge sheet since no offence of ‘terrorism’ was committed.

He pleaded to return the charge sheet to the IO with a direction to submit the same before the relevant court of jurisdiction for determining the nature of the offence and conduct the trial in accordance with the law.

Advocate Abbas told Dawn that the ATC judge had returned the charge sheet to the IO and directed him to submit it before the relevant court of jurisdiction.

According to the prosecution, Hasnain had allegedly quarrelled with Jazlan, a student of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (ICMA), upon being asked to stop reckless driving due to which he along with his friends chased the victim’s car and opened fire near Bahria Town’s ‘Eifel Tower’.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 216-A (penalty for harbouring robbers or dacoits), 109 (abetment), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the ATA at the Gadap City police station on the complaint of victim’s paternal uncle Arif Sabir.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022