The Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved its judgment on Thursday over appeals filed by the accused Rangers against their conviction in Sarfaraz Shah’s murder case.
Sarfraz Shah was murdered by Rangers at Benazir Shaheed Park in Clifton on June 8, 2011. A division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the final arguments from the deputy prosecutor general who vehemently opposed the convicts’ appeals filed on Aug 25, 2011. The bench reserved the pronouncement of the verdict for a date to be announced later by the court’s office.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) headed by Bashir Ahmed Khoso had sentenced Rangers Constable Shahid Zafar to death and jailed Sub-Inspector Bahaur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali and constables Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali and Afzal Khan for life. The civilian contractor, Afsar Khan, was also jailed for life in the case.
The appellants, through their counsel, submitted that the ATC had no jurisdiction to try the case against the personnel of law-enforcement agencies.
They requested the court to set aside the conviction as it was illegal and unlawful, and acquit the appellants of all the charges.
Meanwhile, complainant Salik Shah, the elder brother of the deceased, had also filed plea urging the court for enhancement of penalty of convicts to death sentence. Later on, brother of the victim withdrew his application which requested the death penalty.