ISLAMABAD    -   The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday ac­quitted Shahrukh Ja­toi and his accomplice in murder of Shahzeb Khan, 20-year-old son of former deputy su­perintendent of police.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan conducted hearing of Shahrukh and others petitions for acquittal. Sardar Latif Khosa, representing Ja­toi, argued that parties have already entered into an agreement and the deceased family has pardoned the accused. He contended that his client had no intention to spread terror.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Karach had awarded death penalty to Jatoi and his accomplice Siraj Ali Talpur for Shahzeb’s mur­der in 2012 following a petty dispute. Siraj’s younger broth­er, Sajjad Ali Talpur, and do­mestic helper Ghulam Murta­za Lashari had been handed life sentences. A couple of months after the sentence was passed, Shahzeb’s parents had issued a formal pardon for the convicts, approved by the Sindh High Court (SHC). De­spite the pardon, however, the death penalty had been up­held because of the addition of terrorism charges to the case and ordered a retrial in the case. The SHC, while hear­ing appeals against the con­viction, had later commuted the death sentences into life imprisonment. Subsequent­ly, all four accused had ap­proached the Supreme Court. Shahzeb Khan was gunned down on Saba Avenue in Ka­rachi’s Defense Housing Au­thority (DHA) on the night of December 24, 2012. Shahzeb had returned home from a wedding with his family when an employee of the accused verbally harassed his sister. He confronted the accused and demanded an apology. The accused, however, were remorseless and refused to apologize for the behaviour of their employee. The issue was apparently resolved when Shahzeb’s father intervened and tried to pacify both his son and the other party. Soon after, Shahzeb left his house in his car and was on Saba Avenue when the accused chased him and shot him dead in public. The murder sparked outrage across the country leading to then chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, taking suo motu no­tice of the incident. Following the SC decision, rights activists took to social media and ex­pressed anger over the release of the convicts.