Court halts Arshad Sharif case proceedings due to witnesses’ absence

A local court of Islamabad has sent the Arshad Sharif murder case file to record room, halting the further proceedings due to the absence of witnesses.

Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah, in his written decision of the previous hearing issued on Wednesday, observed that the court had received the investigation report of Section 512 of Pakistan Penal Court on March 16 in the Arshad Sharif murder case.

Subsequently, the court summoned witnesses on April 5 to record their statements but none appeared before it, the verdict added. The court further said that witnesses were not interested to record their statements as they did not appear despite 15 chances were given to the prosecution to submit their statements.

Keeping in view the situation, the court maintained that it stopped further proceedings in the case and that the prosecution might file another application for hearing as per the appearance of witnesses.

The file of Arshad Sharif murder case was being sent to record room till further orders, it added.