Daniel Pearl murder case: SC refuses to suspend SHC verdict.

KARACHI: The Supreme Court has again refused to suspend the Sindh High Court's (SHC) judgment pertaining to the acquittal and release of three accused in American journalist Daniel Pearl's murder case, and the commutation of sentence of another accused in the case.

A three judge bench led by Justice Mushir Alam took up the Sindh government's petition against the SHC judgment for early hearing on Monday.

The provincial government has challenged the SHC verdict, wherein it has commuted the death sentence of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh - the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering the Wall Street Journal journalist in Karachi in 2002 - to a seven-year sentence.The SHC has also acquitted three other convicts, namely Fahad Naseem Ahmed, Sheikh Muhammad Adil and Syed Salman Saqib, who had been awarded life imprisonment in the case by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi.

Hours after their acquittal, the provincial government ordered three months detention of the four accused, which is due to expire on July 2.

Counsel for the Sindh government, Farooq Naek, appeared before the bench to argue for the early hearing of the petition on Monday.

Naek stated that the accused are international terrorists as they were involved in terrorist activities in India and Afganistan. He also cautioned that there is a serious apprehension of acts of terrorism if the accused are released...