ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar ordered the transfer of the appeal pertaining to the Shahzeb murder case to Islamabad.
After the Sindh High Court declared null and void the sentences given to Shahrukh Jatoi and others, the sessions court subsequently granted bail to the suspects.
Members of the civil society had challenged the SHC decision granting bail to the convicts and dropping of terrorism charges in the Karachi registry of the apex court.
The Supreme Court has not given any date for the hearing of the appeal as yet.
On December 23, 2017, Shahrukh Jatoi, the son of an influential feudal lord, and other defendants in the Shahzeb Khan murder case were released from custody on bail after Shahzeb’s father submitted an affidavit in support of the defendant’s bail application.
Shahzeb Khan’s father, Aurangzeb Khan, had earlier asked the sessions court to not only release the four men earlier convicted of his son’s murder on bail, but also drop the case against them completely, arguing that his family had earlier pardoned his son’s killers.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in 2013 had awarded death sentences to Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Talpur for the murder of Shahzeb, while life sentences were awarded to Sajjad Ali Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari.
However, on November 28, 2017 the murder case took a dramatic turn when the SHC ordered a retrial, striking down the death penalty awarded to the convicts by the ATC.
In its order, the SHC stated that an act of revenge over personal enmity did not equate to an act of terrorism.
