The hearing of Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi chief Afaq Ahmed’s plea for quashing a murder case and his bail application in the same matter were postponed by the Sindh High Court (SHC) until August 23.
Justice Tasneem Ahmed adjourned the bail application due to the plea of the lawyer of the complainant, Advocate Mehmood Yousafi, for granting time, whereas the application of quashing the same case under 265 Criminal Procedure Code was adjourned by the single bench comprising Justice Nisar M Sheikh due to want of time.
This matter was already fixed before three different judges of the SHC, one of whom had resigned and two refused to proceed the matter.
Afaq Ahmed in his pleas filed through his lawyers Ilyas Khan and Khurram Maqsood said that the police neither charge-sheeted him nor sent him for trial in the case, but the additional district and sessions judge, without issuing a notice, initiated the trial proceedings against him.
The court was prayed to quash the proceedings against the applicant, and in the other plea it was prayed to grant him bail.
The matter was earlier fixed for hearing before Justice Athar Saeed, but he refused to proceed the matter, following which the matter was fixed before Justice Tufail H Ibrahim.
On one occasion when Justice Tufail proceeded the matter, the additional prosecutor did not appear before the court as a delay tactic, so the judge issued a final warning to the prosecution’s side, but the same Justice Tufail mysteriously resigned a day before the date of the hearing of the case, so the matter was transferred to Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh.
However, Justice Sheikh excused himself from hearing the case and directed the office not to place the application before him.
Afaq Ahmed in his pleas stated that he had been in jail since April 2004 and was implicated in a number of new cases as an abettor over the last couple of years at the behest of the rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
He contended that he has been politically victimised through launching several baseless cases against him.
The prosecution failed to produce any solid evidence to prove his involvement in any offence in the trial court, and he had only been put on trial in a case registered against him at the Nabi Bux police station, in which the trial court had dismissed his bail and acquittal applications.
He said that the prosecution had no solid evidence to link him with this case, which was lodged in June 2009 when he was in prison. He, therefore, prayed for quashing the case.
Shahzad, the complainant of the murder case against the MQM-H chief, lodged First Information Report (FIR) 222/09 under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Nabi Bux police station.
He had stated in the FIR that some workers of the MQM-H had killed his brother Atiqur Rehman and wounded him in June 2009 at the behest of Afaq Ahmed.
