KARACHI - An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday reserved its decision regarding granting bail to former SSP Malir Rao Anwar in a case involving possession of explosives and illegal weapons.

The ATC will give its verdict on Anwar's bail plea on July 20.

The ATC judge conducted hearing on an application seeking bail for the suspended SSP Malir, Rao Anwar in the case of foisting unlicensed weapons and explosives upon Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others victims.

Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar, counsel of the complainant, Muhammad Khan, has submitted certified copies of the petitions those were filed in the Sindh High Court regarding transfer of the case from the tail court to other court. The counsel again requested the court not to hear the matter till the disposal of the petitions. The court continued its proceeding and made it clear that no such intimation has been received by the Sindh High Court. The complainant’s counsel left the court room without submitting his arguments. The prosecutor has submitted his final arguments, the court reserved the judgment, until July 20.

The court has also heard the concluded arguments on the bail applications filed by four other accused including, DSP Ahmed Qamar, Khizar Hayat, Hussain Superd and Yasin Muhammad in the main case of fake encounter killing Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others, the court reserved judgment, till July 28. 

A day earlier, the father of Naqeebullah Mehsud expressed lack of confidence on the trail court by submitting an application seeking transfer the case to another court. The trail court was informed that criminal transfer applications under the Section 526 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were filed by the complainant at the Sindh High Court, for transfer of the proceedings in both cases pertaining to killing of his son and foisting of explosives and arms upon the victim from the ATC-II to any other competent court of law.

The suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar, then DSP Qamar Ahmed Shaikh along with their 10 absconding subordinates have been booked in the second case, which includes charges of terrorism, possession of unlicensed weapon and explosives, was registered after Naqeebullah Mahsud and three others in a staged shoot-out on Jan 13 in Shah Latif Town.

“The complainant has showed his lack of confidence on the trail court I could not give arguments in the court, “said Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar, while talking to The Nation after the court proceeding, he said that the prosecutor of the case Nazeer Bhangora has never argued in a single hearing on the earlier bail plea of Rao Anwar.  

Advocate Panhwar, said that he had wrote to the Prosecutor General Sindh to replace the prosecutor of the case and also sent a written request to the DIG investigation to appoint a new Investigation Officer, but so far no action has been taken in this regard. The complainant has expressed his dissatisfaction on the prosecution and pleaded to assign new IO and prosecutor to proceed the case impartially. The trail court heard the arguments in the absence of complainant. Advocate Salahuddin Pahnwar has also claimed that the prosecution had played their vital role to weaken the case and provide benefit to the suspects.

Earlier, the same court had granted bail to the main suspect, Rao Anawr in the main case pertaining to alleged kidnapping for ransom of Mehsud, a young aspiring model from North Waziristan, along with three others captives and their extrajudicial killing in an alleged fake encounter.

Last hearing, Rao Anwar’s counsel, Amir Mansoob Qureshi had submitted his concluded arguments wherein he claimed that the court had granted bail to his client on the ground that the prosecution had failed to establish his present on the scene, where the four men were allegedly killed in fake encounter. The defence counsel contended that since the applicant was not present on the scene, therefore, he had nothing to do with the second case pertaining to recovery of arms and explosives, as alleged by the prosecution, from the victims their alleged killings.