Withdrawal of security: Prosecutor refuses to pursue BB murder case

Judge says will record IO’s statement in absence of the prosecutors on next hearing

RAWALPINDI: A public prosecutor has refused to pursue the Benazir Bhutto assassination case in a trial court after withdrawal of his security by the interior ministry.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special Prosecutor Chaudhry Muhammad Azhar did not appear before the anti-terrorism court-I judge, Ayub Marth, on Monday.

Another prosecutor, Khawaja Imtiaz, also did not turn up. The judge put off the case till Wednesday with a direction for both the prosecutors to appear before the court at the next hearing.

The trial court was to record the statement of FIA Assistant Director Shoaib Ahmed, an investigation officer in the case.

Defence lawyer Naseer Ahmed Tanoli told The Express Tribune that the judge was unhappy over the non-appearance of the prosecutors.

He said that the judge has noted in his order that he will record the statement of the investigation officer during the next hearing even if the FIA prosecutors did not appear in the court.

Azhar told The Express Tribune that he had informed the court on the phone about the withdrawal of his security and his inability to appear.

He said that when he wrote a letter to the interior ministry on February 12 after his security was withdrawn, an official in the ministry told him that the security has been withdrawn on the order of Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan.

He said that he could not travel from Sialkot to Rawalpindi to pursue the case without proper security.

Azhar claimed that the other prosecutor did not appear in the court because his security has also been withdrawn. He pointed out that after the killing of former FIA prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali in Islamabad in May 2013, he had sought the police escort. He said that he could not pursue the case in the absence of proper police security.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd,  2016.