The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Sindh High Court (SHC) November 28 verdict that paved the way for the release of Shahrukh Jatoi and others on bail, who were convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Shahzeb murder case.
ISLAMABAD, (Pakistan Point News - 01st Feb, 2018) : The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Sindh High Court (SHC) November 28 verdict that paved the way for the release of Shahrukh Jatoi and others on bail, who were convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Shahzeb murder case. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, gave this verdict. The court ordered the police to immediately arrest all the suspect.
It also directed the authorities to place their Names on the Exit Control List (ECL). Police arrested Shahrukh Jatoi and the other two suspects from the courtroom after the verdict had been announced by the bench. The bench remarked that the names of all three suspects would continue to remain on the ECL in order to thwart their efforts to escape from the country. The high court had granted bail to Shahrukh Jatoi and the other suspects in the Shahzeb murder case earlier in December.
The decision was made after Shahzeb’s father pardoned the murderer and submitted in the court a copy of an agreement stating that they have not accepted the blood-money (khoonbaha). “Shahzeb’s family forgave (Shahrukh Jatoi) in the name of Allah. They didn’t take any cash,” Ashraf Jatoi, the brother of Shahrukh Jatoi, had said while talking to media. Twenty-year-old Shahzeb Khan, who was the son of Deputy Superintendent of Police Aurangzeb Khan, was gunned down in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority area on the night of December 24, 2012, when he was returning home along with his sister after attending a wedding.
He was shot following an altercation with one of the suspects’ servants who had allegedly given verbal threats to the victim’s sister. Amid widespread outrage across the country after the murder, hundreds of civil society members protested in Karachi urged then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry to take notice. He later took suo motu notice.
