KARACHI, April 15: A division bench of the High Court of Sindh adjourned indefinitely on Tuesday the hearing of nine identical petitions filed by dozens of students of Sindh Medical College (SMC) seeking permission to appear in their exams.

The bench comprised Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery.

When the matter came up for hearing before the bench, Additional Advocate- General Abbas Ali submitted an application on behalf of Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan.

The applicants submitted that two division benches of the SHC earlier passed different orders in which prayers by the petitioners were declined. This bench had passed interim orders overlooking the decisions by other benches, the applicants said, requesting for the constitution of a larger bench considering the diverse opinions.

The bench at this stage ordered that the applications be placed before the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court for appropriate orders, while putting off further hearing till decision by the chief justice on the application.

The petitioners moved the court impugning a notice issued to them by the SMC principal to show cause why their admissions to the medical college should not be cancelled as they secured admissions through fraud/unfair means/tampered documents (mark sheets, etc).

Some of the students got admission to the SMC in 1997 on chief minister’s quota despite a general ban on all such quotas.

APPEAL FILED: Mohammed Hanif, alleged to be a deputy chief of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, preferred an appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the US consulate suicide bomb case of June 14, 2002.

The appellant and co-accused Mohammed Imran, the chief of the organization, were sentenced to death on Monday by Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the anti- terrorism court-1 at Karachi.

Two other co-accused, Sharib and Zubair, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The four were also ordered to pay a compensation of Rs500,000 each.

Mohammed Ashraf, the fifth accused, alleged to be finance secretary of the group, was acquitted of the charges of murder, attempt to murder, possessing explosive material and spreading terrorism.

Abdul Waheed Katpar, advocate, who filed the appeal on Tuesday morning, submitted that the trial court failed to appreciate the material differences between the statements of prosecution witnesses.

Relying on a number of documents produced by the prosecution, the counsel for the appellant said according to the prosecution, the explosion was carried out by the suicide bomber by using a Suzuki pickup, but out of the 19 vehicles that were damaged or broken apart, none of them was a Suzuki pickup.

The detonation was caused in a Suzuki hi-roof van as per evidence led by the prosecution itself, including the list of the damaged vehicles and the statement of complainant SI Ali Gohar Soomro, the counsel maintained.

No one from the Bomb Disposal Squad was examined by the prosecution to establish that which kind of explosive was used. Whether the detonation was caused by a suicide bomber or by using a timer or a remote control, the counsel maintained in the appeal.

According to the prosecution, 12 persons died and 48 others were injured in the explosion. Nineteen vehicles were damaged when a Suzuki pickup loaded with explosives was rammed against concrete barricades of the US consulate at Karachi on June 14, 2002 in the early morning rush hour.—APP