Reconstituted bench to hear Sharif, Zardari cases

Islamabad, April 26: The Sindh High Court Bench will be reconstituted to hear the appeals pertaining to the conviction of Pakistan's depos...

Islamabad, April 26: The Sindh High Court Bench will be reconstituted to hear the appeals pertaining to the conviction of Pakistan’s deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others as Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar, earlier sitting on this Bench, has been elevated to the Supreme Court.

Comprising Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar and Justice S A Rabbani, the appellate Bench was scheduled to resume on May two, the proceedings of the plea filed by Nawaz Sharif against the life sentence awarded to him by the Anti-terrorism Court, Karachi in the plane hijacking case.

The Bench had already admitted Nawaz Sharif’s plea to regular hearing.

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The same Bench was also scheduled to proceed with the appeals filed by the state to seek enhancement in the conviction of Nawaz Sharif to death sentence as well as to question the acquittal of other six co-accused namely Shahbaz Sharif, Saifur Rahman, Saeed Mehdi, Ghous Ali Shah, Shahid Haqan Abbasi, and Rana Maqbool Ahmad in the hijacking case of PK-805 on October 12 last.

The Bench had fixed May three to look into the maintainability of the state appeals against the trial court orders.

The elevation of Justice Dogar has called for reconstitution of the SHC Bench now.

The special Bench of the SHC, earlier constituted to hear Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari’s petitions, also stands dissolved with the elevation of Justice Hamid Ali Mirza to the Supreme Court of Pakistan among three judges of this Court.

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The petitions questioning the vires of the Ehtesab Act were pending hearing before the Bench comprising Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, Justice Rodhan Essani and Justice Zahid Qurban Alvi.

It may be recalled that it is the third occasion that the bench is being reconstituted to hear the petitions of the couple.

Shiite lawyer killed

Islamabad: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Shiite Muslim lawyer and leader of Tehrik-E-Jafria Pakistan (TJP), Mir Farukh Barjees, and his assistant in Pakistan’s central Punjab province today, police said.

The gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, sprayed bullets at their car, killing Barjees and his assistant Muhammad Idrees, near Khanewal railway station, 40 kms from Multan, police said, adding the assailants fled after the shooting.

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The attack occurred when the two were going to Multan, police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Barjees was the son of former TJP district Khanewal president Mir Zaheer-ul-Hasan, who was also killed in a terrorist attack two years ago.

Barjees’ party has been pressing for Shiite Muslim law in Pakistan, a country that has majority Sunni Muslim population.