The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition of Punjab Secretary, Public Prosecution Department and former Inspector General (IG) Sindh Rana Maqbool Ahmed seeking transfer of criminal cases against him from Sindh to any other province. The former IG is accused of conspiracy to kill President Asif Ali Zardari.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jillani, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Asif Saeed Khosa heard the petition seeking review of Sindh High Court decision of April 28, 2009 wherein the court had set aside an order of Additional Sessions Judge Karachi who had dismissed the allegations that President Zardari had been tortured in jail where Maqbool was in charge of the investigations.
Advocate Mohammad Akram Sheikh, counsel for the petitioner requested the court to order transfer of the case from the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Karachi South to any other province or Islamabad because of threat to his life in Sindh. He said that the judgement of Sindh High Court was passed by former Justice Peer Ali who was relegated by July 31, 2009 decision of the apex court for having taken oath after November 3, 2007. He was a stranger and not a judge, he added.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that July 31 decision did not say anything about the judgements passed by the judges. The petitioner had not uttered even a single word to condone the period of 405 days, hence the petition was time barred, he added.
A proclaimed offender does not have the right of audience, observed Justice Asif Saeed Khosa adding Maqbool was serving in Pakistan but he never attend the court. Akram Sheikh referred to the incidents of targeted killings in Karachi and said his peers had advised him not to turn up in the court, as he could be a victim of targeted killings.
In his petition, Maqbool has directly named the PPP and its co-chairperson as a threat to him. He has said that "neither Zardari would take a chance to appear in the witness box nor his party men would like his credibility to be tested in the criminal case lest his conviction in perjury may cost him Presidency, therefore, humiliation and torture of the petitioner in some other case is the option PPP led government is left with." Maqbool decided to approach the Supreme Court because on June 15, 2010 he had received a letter from S&G AD (Service and General Administration Department) Punjab, which passed on a query by 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Karachi South about his present posting.
The allegations against Maqbool date back to the events of the 90s. Zardari was required for investigations for his alleged involvement in the murder of Justice Nizam Ahmed and his only son Nadeem Ahmed; the former was hearing a high profile land grabbing case when he was killed. Zardari was taken into judicial custody and locked up in the Central Prison, Karachi at that time.
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