Govt to file review petition against SC verdict in Daniel Pearl murder case: sources

ISLAMABAD: Federal and Sindh governments on Thursday agreed to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its verdict in the Daniel Pearl murder case, ARY News reported citing sources.

A spokesman at the attorney general’s office confirmed that the high officials of the Federal and Sindh governments had discussed the matter but he refused to give further details.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Supreme Court had earlier today dismissed the appeal of the Sindh government and acquitted the accused of the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

A bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam had announced a brief verdict over the appeal of the Sindh government against the Sindh High Court’s April 2020 decision.

In the majority verdict, a member of the bench had written his note of dissent.

Four convicts of the murder case, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh, co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil had moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) in 2002 challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Court after finding them guilty of abducting and killing American Journalist Daniel Pearl.

The high court had overturned the verdict of the ATC and acquitted convicts on April 02, 2020. The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was researching for a story on religious extremists in January 2002 in Karachi, when he was abducted and slain.

Earlier, the government of Sindh had submitted sensitive information in a sealed envelope to the court. Advocate General Sindh had said that the main accused Ahmed Omer Saeed had links with the outlawed banned groups. “There is evidence but we could not prove it before the court,” Sindh’s counsel had said.