Delaying justice: No show at Wali Babar’s second hearing | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Delaying justice: No show at Wali Babar’s second hearing

Pakistan Press Foundation

SUKKUR: Saturday was the second hearing of the murder case of Geo Television reporter Wali Khan Babar in which neither the lawyers nor the witnesses showed up.

The case was recently shifted to Kandhkot as the prosecutors and witnesses were facing security threats in Karachi. The first hearing of the case in Kandhkot was scheduled for November 12, when none of the advocates and witnesses showed up. The anti-terrorism court Kandhkot judge, Mushtaq Leghari, adjourned the hearing to Saturday but no one showed up once again. Now the court has adjourned the hearing to November 30. The law enforcers had, however, taken security measures to make sure the advocates and witnesses are able to come safely.

On November 8, Sindh High Court chief justice Maqbool Baqar had transferred the murder trial of Khan to Kandhkot, after the advocate general informed a three-member bench of the Supreme Court that the government wants to relocate the trial proceedings to ensure the killers are prosecuted.

Wali Babar was killed on January 13, 2011, when unknown men opened fire on his car in the limits of Super Market police station. The trial, which was supposed to be completed within seven days according to the terms of Section 23 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, has been moving at snail’s pace. This was mostly because the seven persons directly linked to the case were brutally murdered one by one.

Indictment

Five men — including Faisal Mahmood alias Nafsiati, Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh alias Mani, Naveed alias Polka and Shakil alias Malik — have already been charged with the murder by the anti-terrorism courts.

So far, six witnesses — including police informer Rajab Ali Bengali, constable Asif Rafiq, head constable Arshad Kundi and Super Market police station SHO’s brother Naveed Khan — have been murdered.

In the wake of looming threats, the provincial government recently decided to change the place of the trials, showing its commitment to get the perpetrators of the murder prosecuted.

Express Tribune


Comments are closed.