Karachi (Staff Report): A district and sessions court on Friday sought details of a pardon offered to Shahrukh Jatoi and other accused by the victim's family.
The court also summoned details of the arguments presented by lawyers in the case at the Sindh High Court, before the case was sent to the session court for re-hearing.
During today's hearing of the case, the four accused of the murder of Shahzeb ─ Shahrukh Jatoi, Siraj Talpur, Sajjad Talpur and Ghulam Mustafa Lashari ─ appeared before the court.
The court adjourned the case until January 20.
Jatoi and two co-accused were released from jail during last month after a district and session court approved their bail applications.
Shahzeb Khan's father, Aurangzeb Khan, had had asked the sessions court to not only release the four men earlier convicted of his son's murder on bail, but also drop the case against them completely.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had earlier awarded the death penalty to Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Ali Talpur for 20-year-old 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, however, Shahzeb's parents had issued a formal pardon for the convicts, approved by the Sindh High Court.
Despite the pardon, however, the death penalty had been upheld because of the addition of terrorism charges to the case.
