Pakistan - Taseer murder case file disappears; govt denies

Important records related to the case of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer have gone missing from the Islamabad High Court, according to sources. The judge’s order sheet in the case has gone missing from the court record and is impossible to be reconstructed, court officials told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. Reportedly, the important records related to Taseer murder case disappeared from the case record the other day, but official sources, on the condition of anonymity, claimed that no record of the case had disappeared. “Three types of records are maintained for a sub judice cases i.e. police challan, judicial record and prosecution record”.

Around 99 percent judicial and other records can be reconstructed if it goes missing. Only one percent of the judicial record cannot be re-constructed as it contains orders of the respective judge, lawyers and court officials stated. They also said that Islamabad High Court Advocate General Abdul Rauf would plead the case in the IHC division bench on the next hearing of the case come Tuesday. Earlier, the IHC granted one-week time to the prosecutors for arguments against Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Salmaan Taseer, and adjourned the hearing till next week.

A two member bench of the IHC comprising of Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui heard the appeal petition filed by Mumtaz Qadri counsel Justice(r) Hafeez Akhtar. During the hearing, prosecutors pleaded the court for two weeks’ time for the preparation of the case against Qadri. Accepting the prosecutors’ plea advocate general gave one-week deadline to argue against the appeal of Qadri’s challenging his death sentence. In 2011, Qadri was sentenced to death by the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) after confessing the crime and being proven guilty during interrogation and investigation.