KARACHI: The Sindh High Court issued on Monday a notice to the provincial prosecutor general to file comments on an application seeking transfer of the murder case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad to Karachi.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, who headed a single-judge bench, was hearing the application filed by accused Mohammad Hashim, seeking speedy trial of the case.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Pearl was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002, while he was working on a story about Islamist militants. Later, he was decapitated by his captors.<\/p>\n
Omer Saeed Sheikh, who masterminded the murder, was sentenced to death, while Salman Saqib Shaikh, Fahad Naseem and Mohammad Adil were sentenced to a 25-year jail term in 2002. But the court had shown seven other accused, including Hashim, as absconders.<\/p>\n
Hashim was arrested on Sept 6, 2005.<\/p>\n
Applicant\u2019s counsel Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi submitted before the court that Hashim had been behind bars since his arrest, while the trial court had examined eight prosecution witnesses so far.<\/p>\n
He said the trial of the accused could not proceed further as the presiding officer of ATC Hyderabad, Javed Alam, had been transferred and the newly-posted presiding officer of ATC Abdul Ghafoor Memon had already refused to hear the case when he was presiding officer of the ATC-II, Karachi.<\/p>\n
He said the applicant was suffering due to inordinate delay in conclusion of the trial and had become ill.<\/p>\n
The counsel argued that such delay in proceedings was a gross violation of anti-terrorism laws.<\/p>\n
He requested the court to transfer the case to any ATC in Karachi and issue directives for its early disposal. The hearing was adjourned till May 19.\u2014PPI<\/p>\n