SHC acquits 5 men sentenced in Perween Rahman murder case.

KARACHI -- The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday acquitted all five men sentenced in the murder case of renowned rights activist Perween Rahman - who was shot dead in the metropolis in 2013 - citing a lack of evidence and ordered their release.

The development comes around nine months after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi sentenced four of the accused, namely Abdul Raheem Swati, Ahmed Khan, Amjad Hussain Khan and Ayaz Swati, to life imprisonment and sent the fifth accused, Imran Swati, to jail for seven years.

The trial court's verdict, which was issued after eight long years of proceedings, was subsequently challenged in the high court.

In its judgement issued today, a two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, observed that none of the accused had been charged with 'actually murdering' Rahman.

Instead, the court said, 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 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 light of this, the court said, accused Rahim Swati's confession, which was recorded under Section 21 (H) of the Anti-Terrorism Act and later disowned, should have been recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Therefore, 'we place no reliance on it' and it was also 'inadmissible in evidence'.

The court also observed that prior to this confession, there was no tangible evidence against any of the accused.

The court concluded that even if all pieces of evidence were admitted, they failed to prove the charge against the accused...