An anti-terrorism court has told the prosecutor general of Sindh to appear in person in a seven-year-old case against former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza.Mirza along with his around three dozen supporters was charged with obstructing policemen from performing their duty during an alleged siege of the Darakhshan police station in May 2015.
As the matter came up for hearing before the ATC-XII judge, the estranged PPP leader and other accused turned up in court on bail.
An additional prosecutor general informed the judge that he had been given a direction by the prosecutor general office to “not proceed with the case”.Taking his statement on record, the judge directed the court office to summon the prosecutor general to appear in person on the next date to explain his position in this regard.
The hearing was adjourned until March 4.In May 2015, the Darakhshan police had registered an FIR against Mirza and his supporters for allegedly causing a terror-like situation at the Darakhshan police station, threatening policemen and obstructing them from performing their duty. He had come to the police station to record his statement in cases registered against him in the Badin district.At the previous hearing on January 21, the judge noted that despite the clear directions contained in the December 28 letter of the Sindh High Court’s Member Inspection Team-II about expeditious disposal of cases in compliance with the directives of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC), the special public prosecutor (SPP) was called absent once again though the investigating officer appeared along with three prosecution witnesses. “Such conduct of SPP has put the court in an embarrassing position where the directions issued by the honorable NJPMC could not be complied with unless strict actions are taken and coercive measures adopted,” the judge said.
