Daniel Pearl murder convict wants to be shifted to Karachi prison
Jamal Khurshid
The Sindh High Court issued a notice to the advocate general on Tuesday on an application seeking the shifting of Syed Salman Saqib, a convict in US journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and killing conspiracy case, from Hyderabad to a Karachi prison.
The court was hearing the appeals filed by main convict Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh and Saqib against their convictions in the case. Saqib’s counsel Abdul Waheed Katpar submitted in the application that the appellant was a resident of Karachi and it was very difficult for his family members to visit him at Hyderabad prison. Besides, he said, the appeal was being heard by the SHC in Karachi.
He said that the court had already ordered the shifting of another convict in the case, Sheikh Adil, to the Karachi prison on April 14, 2011, on identical grounds. He prayed to the court to order the shifting of the appellant to Karachi’s Central Prison.
After conducting the preliminary hearing of the application, a Sindh High Court division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah issued a notice to the advocate general for April 2.
Daniel Pearl, a US national and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped on January 23, 2002, from Karachi and was later beheaded by his captors.
The main accused, Ahmed Omer Sheikh, was sentenced to death on the charges of kidnapping and killing the US journalist, while his three accomplices — Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil — were sentenced to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs5,00,000 each by the Anti-Terrorism Court, Hyderabad, on July 15, 2002. The court also directed the convicts to pay Rs2 million to the victim’s widow, Mariane Pearl.
The appeal had been pending in the SHC since July, 2002.
Status quo ordered on police inspectors’ plea
The SHC ordered status quo on a petition of police inspectors who questioned the proposed promotions of those police officers who had already been granted out-of-turn promotions.
Petitioners Syed Ali Anwar Shah and 13 other police inspectors submitted that they had been denied promotions for the last 15 to 17 years due to illegal shoulder promotions in the police department. They said the authorities concerned were once again considering officers who had been granted out-of-turn promotions for 54 vacant posts of DSP although it was a principle that no officer was entitled to second shoulder promotion.
They prayed to the court to restrain the authorities concerned from convening a meeting for considering the promotion of police officers till the adjudication of the petition.
Issuing notices to the AG, the IG and others, an SHC division bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar ordered status quo in the matter.
Converted woman sent to Darul Aman
The Sindh High Court ordered shifting a woman who has converted to Islam and married a Muslim man to Darul Aman till her production before the Supreme Court.
The court was hearing a petition of Hafsa (Dr Lata Kumari) who sought protection and the quashment of an abduction case against her spouse Nadir Baig.
The petitioner’s counsel, Nasarullah Siddiqui, submitted that she had already recorded her statement before the magistrate in which she denied the allegations of abduction, forced conversion and marriage, and stated that she wanted to live with her spouse.
The counsel for the petitioner’s parents submitted that their daughter be sent to Darul Aman till her production before the Supreme Court, which is dealing with the matter. Adjourning the matter till March 29, the court directed that the petitioner be lodged at Darul Aman till her production before the Supreme Court.
SP granted pre-arrest bail
The SHC granted pre-arrest bail to SP Zakir Hussain Piprani in a robbery case.
SP Piprani is accused of looting Rs21,850 from a land owner, Afzaluddin, on March 11 in the Sohrab Goth area. According to the police, the SP and his four men — Naseer, Zameer, Haq and Anwar — tortured the complainant who was excavating clay from the Sohrab Goth area, and looted cash and mobile phone from him. Afzaluddin submitted in the application that he was falsely booked in the case on the instruction of SSP Malir Rao Anwar, who had some enmity with him.
Granting interim bail to the SP, the court ordered him to surrender before the trial court concerned.
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