KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday will give its verdict on a case registered to assess its jurisdiction in Nazim Jokhio murder case on May 23.

The National Commisson of Human Rights in its petition before the Sindh High Court has petitioned to become a party to the case. The NCHR lawyer Jibran Nasir requested the court to adjourn its hearing as the SHC has issued notice for May 20.

Police, prosecution, and the widow of Nazim Jokhio have opposed trial in an anti-terrorism court. The prosecution and suspects counsels have  maintained that terrorism clauses is not applicable in the murder case.

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. 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.

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.