Benazir assassination case: Court summons counsel for accused

Public prosecutor had filed a petition, challenging the order of the ATC.

ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday summoned the defence counsel of former City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz and SP Khurram Shahzad after the public prosecutor filed a petition, challenging the order of anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

The ATC had sent both policemen on judicial remand on December 29 last year.

The case will be taken up by Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh and Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh on January 13.

Public prosecutor Chaudhary Zulfiqar told the court that the JIT had informed the judge of the ATC on December 27 that they wanted to question the suspects for the recovery of their cellular phones and “certain other property”, which was not possible without physical remand.

He said that it was important to carry out forensic tests on the phones because the JIT wanted to determine who had been in contact with the police officers on the day of Benazir’s assassination

On December 29, he said, ATC Judge Rana Nisar sent both police officials to jail on judicial remand, thereby denying the investigators an opportunity to properly question them.

On December 29, an ATC rejected FIA team’s request for extending the physical remand and sent both officials to jail on judicial remand for two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.