The Supreme Court on Monday transferred a murder case of Asif Ashraf, former PML-N candidate for provincial assembly to Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) with directives to dispose of the case within shortest possible time. Earlier, a five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali while admitting the appeal filed by Kashif Ali, brother of the deceased Asif Ashraf, set aside the judgement delivered by Lahore High Court, transferring the case from ATC to an ordinary court.
The court set aside the LHC judgement and transferred the murder case of Asif Ashraf, the PML-N contesting candidate from PP-154, Lahore in 2008 general elections, to an ATC. The court directed the ATC to expedite and ensure its disposal within the shortest possible time.
On February 17, 2008, five people including Asif Ashraf, were gunned down in Lahore. According to reports, gunmen opened fire on Ashraf's vehicle, when he was visiting his constituency in Lahore. Kashif Ali lodged an FIR under Section 302, 324, 34 PPC and 7ATA, 1997 in Police Station Township, Lahore. Investigation was conducted and on submission of challan an ATC judge, took cognisance. Charge was framed and statements of five prosecution witnesses were recorded.
In the appeal, filed in the Supreme Court, Kashif Ali submitted that the accused Tariq Hakim filed an application for transfer of the case. However, he said that the ATC judge in Lahore dismissed the application of the accused on July 13, 2010. Later, he said that the accused filed a constitutional petition before LHC which was allowed vide judgement dated August 16, 2010, directing transfer of the case from a special court for trial by an ordinary court.
Kashif Ali in his appeal contended that the indiscriminate firing at a public place on the polling day during general elections was made which resulted into killing of four persons including a brother of the contesting candidate.
He said that the offence under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) is clearly made out. The petitioner had contended in the appeal that the cumulative fall out of the occurrence was to terrorise the general public and the intention of the assailants can be judged from their act, selection of time and place of occurrence, adding that it created a sense of fear in the society.
He contended that the LHC fell in error in placing sole reliance on the judgement rendered in Bashir Case as it was not in line with the array of authorities on the subject. On Monday Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan appeared before the court representing the accused Tariq Hakim while Sardar Muhammad Aslam represented the petitioner Kashif Ali, brother of deceased Asif Ashraf.
During the course of proceedings, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan contended that the murders on the basis of personal enmity do not fall in the domain of terrorism no matter how many are killed. He further submitted that Anti-terrorism courts only dealt with terrorism-related cases. He further said that Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) deprived the rights of the accused.
The judgement delivered by the Lahore High Court, had ruled that the incident in the present case cannot in any manner be declared falling within the ambit of section 6 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 thus the learned Judge Anti-Terrorism Court Lahore has committed an illegality while passing the impugned order assuming the jurisdiction to try offences. The LHC had allowed the writ petition, setting aside the impugned order dated July 13, 2010 passed by the Judge Anti Terrorism Court Lahore and had transferred the instant case from the ATC to the court of ordinary jurisdiction, i-e the learned Sessions Judge, Lahore for trial in accordance with law.
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