PML-N leader gets bail in murder case

RAWALPINDI:

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sohail Anjum on Wednesday granted interim bail to Nasir Butt — a close aide to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — in a triple murder case.

Butt, who was also the central character of the judge video scandal, is also a candidate of the PML-N on the Punjab Assembly seat, PP-16, from Rawalpindi.

The judge also suspended his non-bailable arrest warrants, which had declared him a proclaimed offender.

The court also issued a notice to the Sadiqabad police station house officer and sought a complete record of the case on April 3. The judge also restrained the police from arresting Butt till the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, the returning officer also accepted the nomination papers of Nasir Butt from PP-16 Rawalpindi.

Objections had been filed against his nomination papers by the plaintiff in the triple murder case, seeking to declare him ineligible to contest elections.

In the objections, it had been contended that Butt was the main suspect in the triple murder and red warrants were issued for him, declaring him a proclaimed offender.

The triple murder took place 27 years ago in October 1996 at Chandni Chowk in the Sadiqabad police jurisdiction, in which two brothers Ikramul Haq, Iftikharul Haq and their driver, Zafar were killed in a car. Both the suspect and the plaintiff in the case belong to the PML-N.

According to the complainant, following the incident, the accused escaped to London on the same day as per the plan and later became active in the PML-N.

The Anti-Terrorism Court Rawalpindi and later a special model court judge issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the accused and subsequently declared him a proclaimed offender.

In 2020, complainant advocate Malik Asrarul Haq got a red arrest warrant issued from the FIA for the arrest of the accused which has not been executed yet.

PML-N as both the opposing groups are central to the party. The complainant has been the president of District Bar Rawalpindi. However, he refused to enter into a compromise despite the pressure and very attractive offers from the PML-N’s high command.

Asrarul Haq, the plaintiff in the murder case, is also the former president of the District Bar Rawalpindi. He had filed objections against Butt and they were expected to be heard on Saturday.

Nasir Butt appeared in the office of Returning Officer Shamsur Rahman on Wednesday, who approved his nomination papers as valid. Nasir Butt said that Rawalpindi was the fortress of Nawaz Sharif. He said that whenever elections were held, the PML-N will win. “I will go door-to-door and woo estranged workers. I will convey Nawaz Sharif's message to them that there is no difference between workers and us.” Butt, who played a key role in seeking the confessional statement of the late judge Arshad Malik for wrongfully punishing Sharif, left the country in 2019 to join his leader in the UK.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2023.