- Two suspects acquitted for lack of evidence
KARACHI: A local anti-terrorism court on Friday announced its verdict in the case pertaining to the murder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Zahra Shahid and sentenced two suspects to death.
The court announced its verdict in the case and awarded death sentences to suspects identified as Rashid alias ‘Tailor’ and Zahid Abbas Zaidi for murdering the PTI leader. Furthermore, two other suspects, Irfan alias Lamba and Kaleem, were acquitted for lack of evidence.
In May 2013, Zahra Shahid, who was the vice president of PTI’s Sindh chapter was shot dead by gunmen outside her residence in Karachi’s DHA Phase-IV locality, hours before her controversial re-election in National Assembly constituency NA-250.
“The convicts in the case belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party and had confessed to the killing,” Rangers prosecution team said, adding that witnesses present at the crime scene had also identified the guilty.
A case had been registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Gizri police station.
Hours after the veteran party leader was shot dead, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had blamed the MQM for her murder.
Earlier, the ATC-XVII judge who heard final arguments from the prosecution and the defence wrapped up the trial and had reserved its final verdict for the next hearing.
In their final arguments, the defence counsel — Latif Pasha and Javed Ahmed Chattari — said that their clients were innocent, having nothing to do with the offence alleged.
They contended that the detained men belonged to the MQM, thus they were framed in the case on the basis of political rivalry.
They further argued that all the detained men were picked up by law enforcement agencies days after the alleged murder took place and their families had petitioned the Sindh High Court over their detention.
The defence also mentioned that the four defence witnesses, including relatives of the detained men and others, had deposed before the court that the law enforcers took them into custody from their homes or workplaces, which was witnessed by many people.
In July, the prosecution had rested its side in the case after examining around 15 prosecution witnesses in the case.
Claiming their innocence, the defence counsel had pleaded to acquit all the accused of the charges levelled by the prosecution, alleging it had made a concocted and false case against them.
On the other hand, Irfan had alleged that he had been taken away by Rangers on March 28 while the murder incident occurred on May 18.
He had also claimed that his family had already filed a case in the Sindh High Court regarding his alleged disappearance.
Moreover, the police had claimed to have arrested Rashid in an illicit weapons case on Sept 25, 2013. The prosecution claimed that during interrogations he had confessed to his involvement in the case of the PTI leader. Later, the police arrested Zahid Abbas Zaidi on Oct 2, 2013.