PPP MPA, four others acquitted in Nazim Jokhio murder case.

KARACHI -- Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Jam Owais and his four servants were acquitted in a case per[1]taining to the murder of activ[1]ist Nazim Jokhio after Malir's District and Sessions' Court ac[1]cepted the out-of-court settle[1]ment between the accused and the victim's legal heirs.

Jam Owais and his four ser[1]vants - Muhammad Mairaj, Ahmed Khan Shoro, Muham[1]mad Doda Khan and Muham[1]mad Soomar - were facing the charges of torturing 26-year[1]old Jokhio to death at the law[1]maker's farmhouse in Malir on Nov 2, 2021. Additional Dis[1]trict and Sessions Judge Faraz Ahmed Chandio pronounced his verdict on the applications filed by the undertrial lawmaker along with the co-accused and legal heirs of the victim, under Sections 345(2) and 345(6) of the Criminal Procedure Code, pleading to accept their out-of[1]court settlement in the murder and kidnapping case. Accepting the applications, the judge acquitted detained MPA Jam Owais, Mairaj, Ahmed Sho[1]ro, Doda Khan and Muhammad Soomar of the charges of com[1]mitting premeditated murder of Nazimuddin Jokhio, throwing his cell phone and clothes in a well to conceal the evidence in further[1]ance of their common intention. The judge ruled that the of[1]fence under the Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code was com[1]poundable. 'MPA Jam Owais has been released from the Malir district prison following his ac[1]quittal and subsequent order issued by the court directing the prison superintendent to release him forthwith, if his custody was not required in any other case,' defence counsel Wazeer Hussain Khoso confirmed to media. However, the judge ruled that two of them - Doda Khan and Soomar Salar - who had also been charged with kidnapping the victim before his gruesome murder, would face the trial un[1]der Section 365 of the...