ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court reserved on Wednesday a judgement on a post-arrest bail petition filed by Moazzam Ali, one of those accused of murdering MQM leader Imran Farooq.

A division bench consisting of Justices Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Athar Minallah reserved the verdict after both the defence counsel and prosecution concluded their arguments.

During the hearing, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed apprised the court of the progress made by the investigation team, as well as the evidence that had been collected thus far to connect the accused with the crime.

FIA prosecutor tells IHC Moazzam Ali was implicated through other suspects’ confessions; defence attorney claims his client is in ‘illegal’ detention

But in his arguments, defence counsel Mansoor Afridi claimed that the FIA did not have any evidence against his client and the five-year delay in registering the case had not been explained. He said the FIA stated that “further evidence” was required, but no evidence had been produced so far before the trial court.

Despite the efforts of Scotland Yard, MQM chief Altaf Hussain and others who were accused of involvement in the murder had not been arrested yet, he said. It is only in Pakistan where anyone can be named in an FIR or charge-sheet and subsequently put behind bars.

Mr Afridi said the interim charge-sheet against his client, which was submitted before an antiterrorism court, did not charge Moazzam Ali with any crime. The FIA had cited 11 witnesses in the report, he said, but none of them had anything to add to charges of conspiracy or abetment levelled at his client. “The FIA has not even specified where the conspiracy was hatched,” he said.

Among other grounds, he said the suspect had not been produced before the court since Jan 28, while his remand was extended on jail officials’ submissions. No order was passed in this regard and no reasons were given by the court for the extension, he said, adding that this “detention is illegal as it is in violation of Section 344 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)”.

In response, the FIA prosecutor said that the agency had thrice obtained the remand of the accused.

He informed the court that Moazzam Ali had allegedly opened bank accounts for the suspects and represented himself as the “cousin and next of kin” in the bank documents, whereas he bore no blood relation with the owners of those accounts.

The prosecution claimed that the accused had allegedly transferred money into the suspects’ accounts at different occasions, which was how they obtained study visas and fulfilled the requirements for admission to the respective colleges where they had enrolled, as a cover.

In addition, the prosecution said that two other suspects — Khalid Shamim and Syed Mohsin Ali — had already implicated Moazzam through their confessions, recorded before a magistrate.

He added that the statements revealed how and where the accused got the money, what its purpose was and how the murder was carried out.

FIA representatives also revealed that a senior MQM member, Mohammad Anwar, had transferred 25,000 British pounds to Khalid Shamim’s account on January 30, 2010.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2016