ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the Daniel Pearl murder case for four weeks on the plea of the Sindh government’s counsel.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, heard appeals of the provincial government and the family of Daniel Pearl against the acquittal of the convicts by the Sindh High Court (SHC).
At the outset of the hearing Sindh government’s counsel, Farooq H Naek sought adjournment of the citing his backbone problem. He also presented his medical certificate before the court.
Justice Mushir Alam remarked is Sindh government not interested to plead the case? It is the responsibility of the provincial government to pursue the case, he added.
Justice Qazi Amin in his remarks during the case said that the Sindh government has lost its case in the high court.
The hearing was later adjourned for four weeks.
The Supreme Court in previous hearing approved appeals of the Sindh government and family of American journalist Daniel Pearl for preliminary hearing against Sindh High Court’s decision.
An anti-terrorism court of Hyderabad had awarded the death sentence to key accused Omer Saeed Sheikh on July 15 in 2002, on the charges of kidnapping and killing the American journalist, while his three accomplices Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Muhammad Adil were handed life sentence with a fine of Rs 600,000 each.
The ATC had also directed the convicts to pay Rs two million to the victim’s widow, Marianne Pearl.
The state had filed an appeal seeking the life terms of three convicts to be converted in death sentence.
Daniel Pearl, a reporter of The Wall Street Journal, went missing in Karachi in January 2002 while he was working on a story. He was later found to be abducted and beheaded.