KARACHI: The Sindh Government will file an application in Sindh High Court (SHC) to block the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the man previously convicted of kidnapping Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl and facilitating his murder.
Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said the government will file an application against the Sindh High Court’s order for the release on Monday. “They are not likely to be released today because the court order will reach the prison and legal opinion will be sought on it,” he explained.
The court has ordered the release of Sheikh and struck down any further orders to detain him on Thursday. It was expected that he may be released from the Central Jail, Karachi today (Saturday).
The Sindh High Court issued a short order that the detention orders of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saqib were null and void while hearing the Daniel Pearl murder case.
The men were detained after they were deemed free to go in April and were being kept at the Karachi Central Jail. However, their lawyers challenged them being further detained on the Sindh government orders. This is what the court struck down as being issued “without lawful authority”.
Nadeem Ahmed, the lawyer for Sheikh and others, said the jail authorities haven’t sent the release order to the high court for verification yet. The court closes at 3pm and without the release order’s verification, Sheikh cannot be released.
He said the authorities are not picking up his phone calls or those of Sheikh’s family.
Hassan Sehto, the superintendent of Central Jail Karachi said they have sent the release order to the court. “We will see about that after the verification,” he said when asked about the expected release of the prisoner.
