Karachi court acquits Sindh senior minister Sharjeel Memon — Dawn

A judicial magistrate in Karachi, Pakistan, has acquitted Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and five other people in a case concerning alcohol allegedly seized from his room at Dr Ziauddin Hospital. According to Dawn, the decision was based on insufficient evidence.

Findings of the chemical examination

Judge Aasim Aslam noted that the prosecution claimed that bottles with suspicious contents had been found in the defendants’ possession. However, the chemical examination report did not confirm this version. According to the case materials, the bottles contained honey and olive oil.

The court ruling states that the available evidence does not support the prosecution’s version, while scientific data contradict it. The court also stressed that police officers’ statements alone, without reliable corroborating evidence, are insufficient for a conviction.

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The case lasted eight years

According to the prosecution, on September 1, 2018, the then assistant superintendent of Karachi Central Prison received information about allegedly illegal activity in a private hospital room where Memon was staying due to illness. The room was declared a sub-jail because the official was then in custody in a case of Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau.

Prison police reported the seizure of two bottles, one of which allegedly contained alcohol and the other honey. A case was later opened against Memon and his employees. In court, defence lawyer Uroosha Memon stated that her client had been groundlessly drawn into the proceedings for political motives and also pointed to the absence of private witnesses during the seizure of the bottles.