LAHORE: On conclusion of trial, a judicial magistrate at Cantonment Courts on Thursday reserved judgement in a case of murder attempt on law student Khadija Siddiqui.
The magistrate is likely to announce the judgement on July 29 (tomorrow). During the trial, the prosecution had produced 11 witnesses to establish that Siddiqui’s class fellow Shah Hussain was guilty. The prosecution also observed that Hussain’s father, an influential lawyer, was using his connections to pressure the complainant into withdrawing the case. Hussain’s counsel had requested the trial court to delete the offence of attempted murder from the FIR but the request was turned down. The magistrate also rejected an application of the prosecution to put the suspect on the exit control list. On May 23, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had taken notice of delay in the trial and directed the court to conclude proceedings within a month by holding daily hearings. Husain’s petition against this order in which he held that it was a case of an ordinary nature and observed that there was no urgency to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis was dismissed. The FIR registered in the case states that Khadija Siddiqui, a student at a private law college, had been attacked by her class fellow Shah Hussain on May 3, 2016. It says that Siddiqui had gone there to pick her younger sister from school. Both sisters were about to get into their car when the accused attacked Khadija with a knife, stabbing her 23 times.
Published in Daily Times, July 28th , 2017.
