The Sindh High Court has accepted the appeals of Perween Rahman murder case convicts overturning their sentences citing lack of evidence and ordered their release, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The Sindh High Court on Monday announced its verdict on the appeals submitted by the five convicts in Perween Rahman murder case. 

While accepting their appeals and voiding their sentences, the court ordered to release them if they were not wanted in any other case. 

In its judgement, a two-judge SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, observed that none of the accused had been charged with “actually murdering” Perween Rahman. Instead, the court remarked, the accused were charged with “planning, instigating and in effect abetting the murder”.

The judges also agreed with the appellants’ lawyer on the contention that Perween Rahman’s interview, which she gave in 2011 and aired after her murder, was inadmissible evidence. The court concluded that it be excluded from the case.

The court also declared that the murder case did not fall in the jurisdiction of the ATC as it was found that the motive behind the killing was not to create terror but land-grabbing. “And as such, all appellants are acquitted of any offence under the ATA in the impugned judgement,” the court order read.

In December 2021, an anti-terrorism court awarded death sentences to Mohammad Rahim Swati, Amjad Hussain, Ayaz Swati, and Ahmad Hussain on the charges of facilitation and abetting proscribed outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban for Ms Rahman’s murder.

Ms Rahman was head of Orangi Pilot Project (OPP). She was murdered on March 13, 2013 near her office. 

Ms Rahman’s sister, Aquila Ismail who was the complainant in the case, had submitted an application to the SHC on Nov 3, 2022 requesting it to take on record a TV interview of her sister in which she mentioned Rahim Swati as additional evidence in the proceedings of the appeals filed by the convicts.

In the interview, Ms Rahman disclosed that she was having a dispute with Rahim Swati, who wanted to set up a karate centre on the land of the OPP office. She called him a land grabber and extortionist and accused him of trying to illegally occupy the land of the OPP’s office.

Reporter Bilal Ahmad