The election commission submitted its reply in Sindh High Court over a plea seeking disqualification of Jam Awais MPA, key accused of Nazim Jokhio murder. The election commission in its reply said that Jam Awais was the member of the previous provincial assembly, which has completed its tenure. “We will comply to any order of the court and will implement it,” the electoral body said. The Sindh government sought time from the court for submission of its reply. The high court summoned final arguments over the petition in the next hearing of the case. “The sides’ lawyers come with preparation in the next hearing, the court will hear the case and decide it according to the law,” Chief Justice SHC Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui said. “The accused has killed Nazim Jokhio and paid Diyet (blood money) to the family of the deceased in the murder case”, petitioner’s lawyer Ali Tahir said.

“Payment of Diyet means the accused has committed murder,” the lawyer argued. The petitioner’s lawyer pleaded for declaring Jam Awais disqualified for life, for holding public office. Former PPP MPA Jam Awais Gohram Jokhio and his men were booked in October 2021 for torturing an activist, Nazim Jokhio to death, as he tried to stop his foreign guests from illegal hunting of houbara bustard, an endangered specie, in the Memon Goth area of Karachi. The family of deceased Nazim Jokhio in an affidavit filed in court consented to pardon Jam Awais and others in the high-profile murder case. “We have reached to a compromise with the accused, the court may acquit them,” an affidavit of Shireen Jokhio, widow of Nazim Jokhio, read.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan