Qaimkhani, a correspondent for the private news agency PPI as well as the Sindhi-language dailies Sindh Sujhag and Barsat, was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of an arson attack on the telephone exchange in Kandiaro, in Sindh province. He was jailed immediately. In reaching the verdict, the court disregarded a note written by the magistrate of the Naushehro Feroze district to the public prosecutor saying that he had found no evidence linking Qaimkhani to the arson attack. Qaimkhani had been arrested for the attack on Jan. 22, after the official in charge of the Kandiaro telephone exchange filed a complaint against him. At that time, he was held for five days and then released on bail. Before his arrest, Qaimkhani had written articles alleging that certain local officials were corrupt. Qaimkhani was released from Sukkur jail on Jan. 21, 1997, after the Sindh High Court overturned the judgment of the lower court on appeal.
