Waqas Shah Case________The Murder Of Justice!

Finally, the Anti-Terrorism Court of Karachi awarded death sentence to MQM`s worker Asif Ali in Waqas Shah murder case. As per the media reports, the conviction was mainly based on the testimonies of two Rangers personnel (who had appeared before the court as eyewitnesses and identified Asif Ali as the killer).

The deceased (Waqas Shah) got shot dead at MQM`s headquarter during the Rangers raid on March 11, 2015. Waqas Shah, also an MQM`s activist, was the resident of Malir and had reached the party head quarter following the news of Rangers` raid there. He was amongst the people protesting against the raid. Rangers blamed that he was fired by a person of the protestors.

Anyway, first question is, how did the Rangers come to know that Asif Ali was the same person who, as per their claim, had shot Waqas dead?

It is on record that immediately after the March 11`s incident, Pakistani media, referring to the Rangers` sources, started breaking the news that the killer of Waqas Shah had been identified. “The Rangers officials made use of video footages of the raid in order to identify the person who is believed to be the killer”, 

news casters added while repeatedly airing a specific part of the video recording focusing that man protesting against the Rangers during the raid. Later on, Rangers claimed to have traced and arrested the suspect (Asif Ali).

The point to be noticed here is that neither the Rangers nor the media had, by that time, claimed to have any eye-witness of the incident. However, when suspect was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate West, two Rangers men identified him as the killer.

Logically, had there been really any eye witness (es) especially belonging to the Rangers themselves, would their investigators have sought help from video recordings to trace who might be the killer? 

Secondly, if the said Rangers personnel were really so close to the accused (from where they could easily see what he was doing), why did they not try to stop or at least arrest him red-handed? Was arresting criminals/accused not the main objective, as the LEA`s officials claimed, for which the Rangers had come to the MQM`s head quarter? Then, why did they return from the crime scene so haphazardly by letting the alleged killer free?? 

By the way, how should it be believed that the said Rangers men (claiming to be the eye witnesses) were really present at the crime scene and also truly saw what they stated in the court? 

The reason behind this question is that the video footages showed that most of the Rangers (especially the ones present at the crime scene) were wearing masks to hide their identity. Consequently, it was almost impossible to identify which personnel were standing exactly at the crime scene, who had been deployed at the entry or exit points of the surrounded area (Azizabad) and also who were on standby in the headquarter of their wing? So if there is any video footage (s) showing the faces of the eye-witnesses present at the crime scene, it may be okay.

But, if there is no such evidence, why to believe them especially while deciding about a capital punishment to an accused? When the presence of an eye-witness itself cannot be proved or verified, how can he be considered as a witness in the case? 

Moreover, for a video clip to be considered as reliable evidence against an alleged killer, it has to show three important things: 

1-The accused must be having the weapon in hands;

2-He should be firing

3-His fired bullet must hit the deceased causing his death. 

Factually speaking, none of the videos could fulfill the above requirements. Then, how can this be of any assistance in concluding a case? 
The brother of the deceased (Waqas Shah) too expressed his dissatisfaction over the court`s verdict on the same ground saying, 

“I have myself watched that video several times. But, I have not found anything proving Asif Ali to be guilty of the murder”.  

He also advised the judges to review his judgment accordingly. In contrast to the above-stated video clip, other videos clearly showed that it was not Asif Ali, but these were the masked Rangers men

who were having guns in their hands and firing despite the fact that dozens of men and women were standing very close to them. In the same video, it can also be witnessed that these were not the Rangers personnel, but the accused Asif Ali himself who had to save his head in order to avoid the bullet fired by the Rangers. 

Taking into account the above-mentioned facts, can the court`s verdict anyhow be called as a fair judgment? Unfortunately, this is not the only one controversial verdict, there are several others which MQM has faced in last three decades.  

It should be kept in mind that the Urdu speaking community formed MQM to raise voice over the decades-prevailing discrimination and the resulted injustice that they have been facing in Pakistan. But, in instead of providing justice to them, such extremely controversial verdicts will definitely add to the miseries of an already oppressed community. And this will not produce any positive result for Pakistan at all.