[DAWN] The Sindh High Court directed the trial court to expeditiously conclude the trial of a defendant in the murder case of Wall Street Journal news hound Daniel Pearl.
With this direction, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar disposed of an application of Mohammed Hashim who had sought the transfer of the murder case of the news hound from an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad to Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi on Jan 23, 2002 while he was working on a story about Islamist Lion of Islams. Later, he was decapitated by his captors.
Omer Saeed Sheikh, who criminal masterminded the murder, was sentenced to death, while Salman Saqib Sheikh, Fahad Naseem and Mohammad Adil were sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2002. But the court had shown seven other accused, including Hashim, as absconders. Hashim was incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
on Sept 6, 2005.
The applicant's counsel, Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi, submitted before the court that Hashim had been behind bars since his arrest, while the trial court had examined eight prosecution witnesses so far. He said the trial of the accused could not proceed further as the presiding officer of the ATC in Hyderabad, Javed Alam, had been transferred and the newly posted presiding officer of the ATC Abdul Ghafoor Memon had already refused to hear the case when he was the presiding officer of the ATC-II, Karachi.
On Monday, the applicant's counsel informed the court that the trial was in progress as the depositions of the prosecution witnesses were being recorded.
He asked the court to direct the trial court to expeditiously conclude the trial. The court accepted the request and disposed of the application. 
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