KARACHI: Judicial Magistrate Malir Altaf Hussain Tunio on Tuesday allowed the trial of alleged assailants of environmental activist Nazim Jokhio under the terrorism law.
Jokhio’s tortured corpse was allegedly found from the farmhouse of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmakers in the Malir area of Karachi on November 3, 2021.
The victim’s brother Afzal Jokhio had nominated lawmakers Awais, Karim, and others for murdering Nazim, “a citizen journalist”, who earned the ire of influential persons for stopping their foreign guests from hunting houbara bustard.
Afzal Jokhio had earlier filed an application for trying the alleged murderers of his brother under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The judicial magistrate concurred with the observation of the additional district sessions judge Malir who, on January 13, 2022, while dismissing the bail applications of certain suspects in the same case, had observed that the matter was one of the nature which fell within the definition of terrorism and thus the court had no jurisdiction to hear and decide the bail applications.
Read more: Court grants interim bail to accused in Nazim Jokhio murder case
“In view of observation already made, considering arguments so advanced, taking the facts into consideration, I am also of the same view as adopted by the court of 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Malir Karachi, in its order dated 13.1.2022. Hence the matter is fit to be triable by the Honorable Special Court for Anti-Terrorism,” The judicial magistrate observed.
The magistrate directed the investigation officer (IO) of the case to submit the final charge sheet, presented today, along with the complete case file to the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism court (ATC). The superintended district jail Malir was also directed to produce the custody of the suspects before the concerned court.
MPA Jam Awais, his elder brother MNA Jam Abdul Karim, their two foreign guests, servants, and guards had been booked for abducting and torturing 27-year-old environmental activist Jokhio to dead at the lawmakers’ farmhouse in Malir on November 3, 2021.
A case was registered under Section 302 (premeditated murder), 365 (kidnapping), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at the Memon Goth police station on the complaint of the victim’s brother.
Read more: Court directs to complete probe in Nazim Jokhio murder case by Dec 2
The IO in the final charge-sheet withdrew the charges pertaining to sections 365 and 109 of PPC and removed the names of Abdul Razzaque, Muhammad Khan, Muhammad Jokhio, Muhammad Saleem, Muhammad Doda, Muhammad Soomar, and Muhammad Suleman from the list of suspects.
Five suspects including Hyder Ali, Meer Ali, Muhammad Miraj, Jamal Ahmed, and Jam Awais Bijar Khan have been shown in custody in the final charge-sheet, while four others including Niaz, Jam Abdul Kareem, Ata Muhammad, and Zahid have been termed as absconders.
