An additional district and sessions’ judge has conducted the hearing of the anchorperson Mureed Abbas murder case at Central Jail Karachi where the police officials presented a report regarding the proclaimed offender Adil Zaman. Police failed to arrest Adil Zaman whose non-bailable arrest warrants were issued by the local court in Mureed Abbas murder case. In its report, police stated that the suspect went into hiding in an undisclosed location and efforts are underway to arrest him. The court has once again issued non-bailable arrest warrants of the proclaimed offender and directed to produce the suspect in the next hearing on November 7. Moreover, the court also issued production order to the guarantor of Adil Zaman, Muhammad Nazir. During the hearing today, the prime suspect Atif Zaman was produced before the court, whereas, his lawyers remained absent. The judge remarked that the court will run a separate case against Atif Zaman after dissociating it from the case against Adil Zaman in the next hearing. Earlier on September 10, the Supreme Court had revoked the bail granted to Adil Zaman, the co-accused in anchorperson Mureed Abbas murder case. A three-judge bench, hearing a plea seeking the cancellation of Adil’s bail at the SC’s Karachi registry, had ordered police to arrest the accused and send him behind bars at once. The accused managed to flee from the court’s premises after the cancellation of bail. Abbas’ wife Zara Abbas had approached the top court, stating that the Sindh High Court had ignored important evidence and granted bail to Adil. Her lawyer had contended that the accused was present at the crime scene when his brother, Atif Zaman, the prime accused in the case, shot and killed two persons, including her client’s husband. On July 9, 2019, Atif had gunned down TV anchorperson Mureed Abbas, 34 and Khizar Hayat, 45 over a monetary dispute in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and then attempted suicide. An anti-terrorism court had on Sept 30 dropped terrorism charges in the case and had sent the case back to a sessions court to conduct a trial of accused Atif Zaman on charges of killing his two business partners.
