Supreme Court on Saturday decided to take up plea of civil society members filed against acquittal of accused of Shahzeb Khan's murder at principal seat as Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has called the case file from Karachi Registry to Islamabad for hearing. As many as 10 representatives of civil society filed the plea before the apex court Karachi Registry against Sindh High Court's order which set aside the convictions and sentences of accused persons including Shahrukh Jatoi and others in the murder case.
Accepting accused Shahrukh Jatoi's Counsel Farooq H Naek plea, Sindh High Court had allowed retrial of Shahzeb Khan murder case after removing terrorism charges against the accused on the grounds that one of prime suspects was a juvenile at the time of occurrence of the offence. On December 23 last year, the trial court granted bail to Shahrukh Jatoi. Other accused include Sajjad Talpur, Siraj Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari.
The petitioners asserting to be the residents of same locality/city where the incident of Shahzeb murder took place, have filed criminal petition for leave to appeal, challenging order of Sindh High Court in the matter. The petitioners submitted that incident of gruesome murder resulted in striking terror which created fear and sense of insecurity among general public.
It is important to mention that in December 2012, main accused after committing murder managed to escape away from Pakistan, who was arrested from abroad in pursuance of the apex court's directives and produced before the court. On January 06, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered immediate transfer of said petition from Supreme Court Branch Registry Karachi to Principal Seat Islamabad and to fix the matter for hearing.