Hearing of Omar Shaik’s petition adjourned
KARACHI- Hearing of Omar Sheikh’s petition, questioning legal authority of the ATC judge Arshad Noor Khan to try him in Daniel Pearl Case, was once again adjourned by Sindh High Court due to nonappearance of Advocate General (AG) Sindh Raja Qureshi on Thursday,
The hearing was put of till April 16 while the case is fixed before the ATC-III Judge Arshad Noor Khan for regular hearing inside Karachi Central Prison on April 12 (today).
Earlier, it was adjourned a day earlier on the same grounds till today. The AAG Sindh M Sarwar Khan submitted that the AG Sindh was still out of the city as such he could not appear in the court and sought adjournment, which was allowed by the bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ash’had and Justice Ghulam Rabbani till April 16.
Omar Sheikh’s counsel Abdul Waheed Katpar and Mohsin Imam have challenged the competence of the ATC-III judge mainly on the grounds that he had become a witness in the case and a witness cannot be entrusted with the job of doing justice.
It has been pleaded in the petition that the investigating agency had cited the names of four prosecution witnesses (PWs) who would give evidence on the point that Omar Sheikh had confessed before Arshad Noor of having committed the crime. The PWs DSP Athar Rasheed Butt DSP Malik Asghar Usman, Inspector Faisal Noor Siddiqi and Inspector Rao Aslam have said in their statements that Omar Sheikh had stated before Arshad Noor Khan in their presence that he had abducted Daniel Pearl, Daniel Pearl was dead, he did not wish to defend himself and that he knew that he would be extradited to the USA.
The petitioner pleaded that the prosecution intended to examine the PWs on this point before the ATC judge Arshad Noor Khan who was himself a witness to this effect even if he was not made a PW.
Source: The News
Date:4/12/2002
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