An anti-terrorism court (ATC) postponed the hearing of the Wali Babar murder case on Thursday after reserving its decision on a plea of the defence lawyer regarding the hiring of the former prosecutor as the complainant’s counsel.
The defence counsel argued before the court that the complainant’s counsel Arshad Cheema was reappointed the prosecutor in the same case and had conducted the procedures of 164, 168 and 173 of criminal procedure code, therefore he was unable to be hired as a counsel and the Sindh Home Department had terminated his services so he could be hired as a private counsel with mala fide intent.
In his arguments, Cheema said that he was sacked along with all prosecutors on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and there is no mala fide intention on the matter as he is eligible to proceed with the case.
After hearing arguments of both sides, ATC Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon reserved the decision for March 21.
The alleged accused – Kamran alias Zeeshan, Junaid, Saeed, Liaquat and Faisal – were brought to the court under strict security from the central jail were presented before the court,
According to the prosecution, the suspects were arrested on April 7, 2011 from Gulshan-e-Iqbal and during interrogation by Joint Investigation Team comprising senior officials from Military Intelligence, Inter-Services Intelligence, Rangers Intelligence, police officers of the Special Branch and the Intelligence Bureau disclosed that their group leader, Faisal alias Mota, had received orders from a man named Agha to kill journalist Babar.
All the five alleged accused confessed their involvement in the murder.
The suspects were also identified by an eyewitness before the judicial magistrate and one accused Shahrukh recorded his confessional statement before the court.
The case was registered at the Super Market police station under murder and terrorism charges.
Last year in October, ATC-I had indicted the five accused but the brother of the slain journalist filed an application before the Sindh High Court expressing dissatisfaction over the charge-sheet and the judge also. The high court then transferred the case to ATC-III.
It is worth noting that last year in December, the Hyderabad police had also arrested two more suspects, Kamran alias Baba and Fahim alias Daboo, claiming that they had admitted involvement in the murder of Babar.
