SC rejects plea seeking removal of terrorism charges in Fahad Malik murder case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal seeking removal of terrorism charges from the Barrister Fahad Malik murder case, ARY News reported.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Manzoor Malik dismissed the appeal filed by an accused person who approached the apex court against the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) verdict, ruling in favour of the inclusion of Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the murder case.

Barrister Fahad Malik was murdered on Margalla Road in a densely populated area of Islamabad allegedly by accused Noman Khokhar, Raja Arshad and Hashim Khan almost three years ago, while discharging his legal duties as a lawyer, to reach a compromise between two parties.

Last year in July, the Islamabad High Court set aside anti-terrorism court (ATC)’s directives to remove terrorism charges and transfer Barrister Fahad Malik murder case to a district and sessions court.

On December 21, 2016, ATC-I Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi accepted a plea from the accused for removing terrorism clauses from the FIR.

In February last year, while hearing an appeal against the order of the ATC judge, division bench IHC comprising of Justice Noor-ul-Haq Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq, suspended the ATC order, noting that it “requires consideration due to infirmities”.

Khawaja Harris, representing the deceased’s brother, had argued that it was ironic how the ATC judge had ignored many vital factors while reaching a seriously defective judgement.

Akram Qureshi, another lawyer of the deceased’s heirs, read out the statements of all the eye-witnesses of the case who stated the plan and design of the accused and the element of terror and fear spread in the locality at the time of occurrence of Barrister Fahad Malik’s murder.