ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has rejected the plea of the Sindh government urging for a stay order against the verdict of Sindh High Court in the Daniel Pearl murder case.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam heard the case on an urgent basis and rejected the plea by the Sindh government on the acquittal of suspects in the murder of the foreign journalist.
The counsel for the Sindh government Farooq H. Naik took the position that the suspect have placed under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) which expires on July 2 and have not released.
Justice Yahya Khan A. Faridi sought an explanation on calling the accused terrorists after their acquittal. Farooq H. Naik said that one of them worked with the terrorist organisation in India and the other in Afghanistan.
The counsel said there could be serious consequences if the suspects are released. The judge reminded that the accused have been acquitted by a court. The top court remarked there was not sufficient evidence to suspend the SHC’s verdict.
It is to be noted that the SHC had on 2nd April 2020 ordered the release of three suspects in the murder case and commuted the death sentence main accused Ahmed Omar Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar, to seven years imprisonment.
Pearl was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, who was investigating armed groups in Karachi when he was kidnapped in January 2002 and was found beheaded weeks later.
Read more: Daniel Pearl case: Sindh govt challenges SHC’s verdict in Supreme court
