SHC allows MQM hitman to engage lawyers

KARACHI: The Anti-Terrorism Appellate bench of Sindh High Court on Wednesday accorded permission to alleged hitman of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Ubaidur Rehman alias Ubaid K2 to engage a lawyer to plead his appeal against the sentence of 14 years imprisonment that was awarded by an Anti-Terrorism Court in November 2017 on charges of possessing illicit weapons.

When the appeals of Ubaid and eleven others were taken up for hearing, head of the bench Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha inquired from Special Public Prosecutor (SSP) why Ubiad had been brought to court.

The SSP submitted that he had not filed appeal through any lawyer. The bench then asked Ubaid whether he wanted to engage a lawyer.

The appellant replied in affirmative and sought time hire a lawyer.

Housed at the central prison, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had handed down 14-year imprisonment to Ubaidur Rehman in a case pertaining to possession of illegal arms and explosive material.

The court had also ordered confiscating the movable and immovable properties owned by Ubaid.

The appellant, according to the prosecution, was arrested from MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, on March 11, 2015, when the paramilitary soldiers had raided the party’s headquarters and adjoining areas to arrest a number of MQM workers who were hiding over there.

During the interrogations he had disclosed to have concealed a huge arms cache at the APWA College and consequently a huge quantity of illegal arms, rocket launchers and other explosives were recovered from the college’s grounds.

Ubaid was also tried by a sessions court for allegedly ambushing the vehicle of a former Central Jail Karachi Superintendent Pir Shabbir Jan Sarhandi, in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area in October, 2015. Sarhandi and his two guards sustained injuries in the attack while his friend, Fahim Farooqi, was killed.

The case was tried in the court of additional district and sessions judge at the judicial complex inside the prison. The judge in his July 16, 2017, verdict had observed that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the suspect.

Earlier, in May same year, Ubaid and three others were exonerated by an Anti-Terrorism Court from the murder case of another jail official, Amanullah Khan Niazi, his brother Habibullah Khan Niazi, and three guards.