The family of Nazim Jokhio informed a Malir court that they have no objection to the exclusion of the names of two sitting Pakistan People’s Party lawmakers Jam Awais and Jam Abdul Karim from the list of the accused in the high-profile murder case.
Jokhio, a local journalist, was found dead last year in November at a farmhouse belonging to PPP MPA Awais. The victim’s brother, Afzal Jokhio, had named Awais and his brother MNA Karim as well as their guards in the FIR for allegedly torturing the journalist to death.
The man was allegedly murdered after he posted a video on social media showing foreigners who had come to Thatta district to hunt houbara bustard. The foreigners were reportedly guests of the PPP lawmakers.
When the investigation officer (IO) of the case filed the final charge sheet after having removed the names of Karim, Awais and 11 others from the list of the accused, it cause much hue and cry.He filed the challan before the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) following the February 8 order of a judicial magistrate to add relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to the murder FIR and refer the case to an ATC.However, an ATC on May 23 announced that the murder of Jokhio did not qualify to be defined as terrorism and returned the final charge sheet to be submitted to a regular court for trial.
On Saturday, the victim’s widow, Shireen, and complainant Afzal Jokhio through their counsel submitted an affidavit to Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Altaf Hussain Tunio, expressing satisfaction at the police investigation into the murder case.
They stated that they had no objection to the IO placing the names of Awais, Karim and 11 others in the charge sheet’s column-II, which meant that they could be discharged for want of evidence.Advancing his arguments, Advocate Wazir Ahmed Khoso, who represented the PPP lawmakers, supported the removal of the names of his clients from the final investigation report and requested the court to accept it.Meanwhile, National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) lawyer and human rights activist Jibran Nasir put forth his arguments on the NCHR’s plea seeking to become a party in the case, as well as the acceptance of the charge sheet.
Talking to The News, he said that the complainant in his statement recorded under the Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) had named both the lawmakers among the accused persons who had tortured and murdered his brother.
