It was the media, not Rangers officials, that spread terror by telecasting the footage of the Sarfaraz Shah killing, defence counsel Naimat Allah Randhawa agued in his final argument before an anti-terrorism court on Monday.
During the proceedings in the extrajudicial killing of a youth Sarfaraz Shah, two defence counsels recorded their final arguments before the court.
Advocate Naimat Allah Randhawa said that the prosecution failed to prove the case against the accused Rangers officials and a civilian. “The Rangers officials were performing their official duty. They did not spread terror among people. In fact, it was the media that did this by telecasting the footage of the incident,” he added.
He said the documents presented in the court by the investigation officer of the case, DIG Sultan Khuwaja, were neither signed by him nor attested. He also contended that the appointment of DIG Khuwaja as the investigation officer of the case was not made by any competent authority and that is why the whole investigation is illegal.
“The proceeding of the case in an anti-terrorism court is also illegal and before announcing the decision, the case should be shifted to the sessions court so that the accused men can avail the option of reconciliation with the complainant party,” he added.
The other defence counsel, MR Syed said that this would be the world’s first ever “terrorism case” in which “terrorists helped the victim, rushed him to a hospital and also provided him with blood”.
He said that Sarfaraz Shah was a bandit and was found involved the name of journalist brother Salik Shah for his illegal activities.
“No prosecution witness has identified the accused by their names and their statements were recorded late. The statements of Mrs Gulnaz Begum and Muhammad Shaheen have no legal status because as they had them recorded on the will of Salik Shah, the victim’s brother and the complainant of the case.
The Sarfaraz Shah case was registered against the accused by the Boat Basin police under sections 302, 34 and 36 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Consequently, a case (FIR 227/2011) under sections 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code was lodged against the personnel visible in the video footage at the same police station on the complaint of the victim’s brother Salik Shah, a reporter for a local news TV channel. Later, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 was also incorporated in the FIR.