Benazir Bhutto murder case: Court directs IGP to provide security for prosecutor

Musharraf’s counsel cross-examines FIA investigators

RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court on Monday directed the inspector-general of the Punjab Police (IGP) to provide security to the prosecutor in the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

Special Judge ATC-I Muhammad Ayub Marth directed the provincial IGP to provide elite force personnel to prosecutor Chaudhry Muhammad Azhar.

In an application filed with the court, the prosecutor said he could not appear in court as the interior ministry had withdrawn his security. He told the court that Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, special public prosecutor for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), was shot dead in May 2013.

Azhar told The Express Tribune that the court had issued directions to IGP Punjab for providing him with security. He added that the court had also sought a response from the ministry as to why the security had been withdrawn, but had yet to receive a reply.

Separately, the court held a hearing into the assassination case of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Barrister Farogh Naseem, representing former president Pervez Musharraf, cross-examined FIA officials Wajid Zia and Khalid Rasool, who investigated the case.

Barrister Naseem asked Rasool if he had sought permission from former president Asif Ali Zardari to not carry out a post-mortem of the late PM. The official replied that investigators sought no permission from Zardari, adding that under law, the investigator could get the post-mortem done without consent of relatives of the deceased. Zia claimed it was the negligence of the Punjab Police, who did not conduct the post-mortem done.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2016.