On the night of 24th and 25th December, Shahzeb returned from a wedding held at Country Club Apartments Karachi. The marriage event was of his elder sister. He was going to his home in Defense Karachi to drop off his other sister. He stopped the car in front of her house and waited for his sister to enter the house. His sister was entering the house when her neighbour’s servant Siraj Talpur called out to his sister. After which Shahzeb became angry with Siraj Talpur. So both of them started fighting. They were fighting and shouting and then Siraj Talpur’s brother Sajjad Talpur, cook Ghulam Murtaza Lashari and their owner Shahrukh Jatoi also joined this fight. Shahzeb fell heavily on them, on which Shahrukh Jatoi got much angry. Shahrukh was drunk at that time. A large crowd gathered there who were trying to settle the matter. But Shah Rukh Jatoi was a drunken prince. He stripped off the gun of his guard. And he fired up three fires in the air and said, “I am the son of Shahrukh Jatoi Sikandar Jatoi; you do not know who I am and what I can do with you.
Shahzeb’s father was Aurangzeb and was DSP in Sindh Police. He endeavoured to settle the matter. He apologized to Shahrukh Jatoi on Shahzeb’s behalf and tried to terminate the conflict, to which Shahrukh Jatoi said, “It would end with Shahzeb’s death, if not today, then someday, I will kill him”. Everyone wanted to cool the matter down. After some time, Shahzeb sat in the car and started going to the country club apartment again. Shah Rukh Jatoi took a gun and a car from his guard and started chasing Shah Rukh. On reaching the corner of the street, he pursued Shahzeb’s car and hit his car. He opened fire on his car but was not satisfied with his action. He went out and started firing from a close range, after which Shahzeb died on the spot.
Now some people here make noise that Shahzeb’s family received 500 yards bungalow and an Australian flat as blood money. But the reality is far more excruciating. Shahzeb’s father, Aurangzeb was the DSP in Sindh. He has pressurized to such an extent that the poor man found peace only in agreeing with the murderer. To rescue the lives of the rest of his family, he parted away from this case. This incident took place within the jurisdiction of Darakhshan police station. DSP Aurangzeb documented the FIR of this incident in Derakhshan police station, where his colleague DSP Waseem Khawaja tempered the FIR with incorrect information about the time and nature of the crime deliberately. He filed an erroneous FIR to weaken the case so he could technically save the culprits. Despite going to the crime scene and collecting evidence, the police kept harassing the heirs to provide the shreds of evidence. Police destroyed all the crime scene pieces of evidence to dent the FIR because if the FIR did not match the crime scene, it would have directly benefited the criminals. Instead of conducting an investigation, the police continued to act evasively. The doctor who performed the post-mortem was pressurized to write on Shahzeb’s post-mortem report that Shahzeb had drunk while driving. He was an alcoholic during celebrations of his sister’s wedding. So it would benefit Shahrukh Jatoi. Meanwhile, Shahrukh Jatoi was provided with a passport with a fake name overnight and fled to Dubai on this fake passport. Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took suo-motu notice. He ordered the case to be registered in the Terrorism Court and commanded the FIA to bring back Shahrukh Jatoi through Interpol. After his arrest, the trial begins in the Terrorism Court.
Now let’s see what game is played here.
1- The investigator does not investigate properly – so the incident seems quite dissimilar with many loopholes.
2- The prosecutor seemed more in favour of the criminals instead of the heirs. The prosecutor was changed 4 to 5 times during the case or the honest prosecutor would have been transferred to another place. Until now, the entire Sindh government and the machinery of the Sindh government engaged in saving Shahrukh Jatoi. Shahzeb’s father DSP Aurangzeb found no help. Then the settlement demand was put on him by the Sindh government. Then he made a peace agreement requesting the safety of the rest of his family. But the Supreme Court rejected this agreement and said, “We can understand the pressure on the heirs”. A few days before this settlement, Shahzeb’s sister was sent to England by her father due to fear of being kidnapped by the Jatoi family. She stated in England how much pressure was being put on her family for reconciliation, and they knew who was pressurizing them. After the settlement, the Supreme Court took notice, rejected the compensation and ordered the case to continue as it was. The terrorism court sentenced Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Talpur to death sentence, while Ghulam Murtaza Lashari and Sajjad Talpur were sentenced to life imprisonment. Now here is the entry of the Sindh High Court. The Sindh High Court annulled the decision of the terrorism court and says that this case was not under the jurisdiction of the terrorism court and should be trialled in the session court. This decision was challenged in the Supreme Court. So the Supreme Court annulled the decision of the Sindh High Court and reinstated the decision of the Terrorism Court. Meanwhile, Shahrukh enjoys the VIP environment in the jail. Rather, he is often absent from prison, but the news spreads that he is in jail. Once former Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar raided the Sindh Jail, where bottles of liquor were seized in Shah Rukh Jatoi’s room. The state of Pakistan was the petitioner in this case, applied to the Supreme Court and acquitted the criminals by implementing the same petition of blood money filed in 2013. Now some people accuse Shahzeb’s father to become submissive, but the family was still alive that was the big swag. Shahrukh Jatoi was honourably acquitted on 18th October 2022. It should be remembered that the petitioner in the Shahrukh Jatoi case was the state of Pakistan. The heirs of Shahrukh Jatoi were putting pressure on the heirs of Shahzeb the murdered and signed a settlement with them, after which the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court took Sumoto action on this and the State of Pakistan was made the petitioner. The position of the Chief Justice was, “Since the criminal is influential, he will get out of this case by putting pressure on the heirs. But when the State of Pakistan would be the petitioner, it will not affect the case.” During the PTI regime, the PTI government via the Attorney General, handled the case well. But as soon as the PDM government came, the state weakened the case. Thus Shahrukh Jatoi was acquitted. We should remember the role of the sitting government that requested to withdraw this case. If we want to record the protest, record the protest in the right direction. And tell the people that the government supported the culprits on this issue of Shah Rukh Jatoi. If we keep quiet, next might be our son/brother who would be killed by this unjust system. The blood money law was misapplied during this case. Sharia courts should decide the patterns and make it compulsory to implement and follow the Sharia laws according to their true spirit. Otherwise,e every powerful rich person can shed the blood of their loved ones and would be set free just against some blood money.
Written by Asim Chaudhry
Translated n edited by Munira Iqbal
