Akbar Bugti murder case: Arrest warrant issued for former provincial minister
Counsel for Jamil Bugti calls it a ‘clever trick’.
QUETTA:
A judicial magistrate issued on Saturday an arrest warrant for Balochistan’s former home minister, currently a member of the provincial legislature, Mir Shoaib Nausherwani in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.
The crime branch team investigating the murder had requested Justice Faisal Hameed to issue an arrest warrant for Nausherwani, one of the accused nominated in the FIR, for his alleged non-cooperation.
The team had contacted the Balochistan Assembly speaker to ask the former home minister to cooperate in the investigation, but he had refused. Formal requests have not been made for issuing arrest warrants for others nominated in the case.
The investigating team had written to the provincial home secretary to seek his approval for obtaining arrest warrants for the others, revealed police sources.
Besides Nausherwani, former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, former Balochistan governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and former Balochistan chief minister Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf were also nominated in the FIR.
The Balochistan government had requested the federal government to extradite Musharraf. But the federal government had first asked for his arrest warrant which is required by Interpol for it to issue red warrants to nab fugitives.
Sohail Rajput, counsel for Nawab Bugti’s son, Jamil Bugti, said obtaining an arrest warrant for Nausherwani was a clever move by the government to protect influential offenders who had played a vital role in the assassination.
(With additional reporting by Shehzad Baloch)
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2011.
A judicial magistrate issued on Saturday an arrest warrant for Balochistan’s former home minister, currently a member of the provincial legislature, Mir Shoaib Nausherwani in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.
The crime branch team investigating the murder had requested Justice Faisal Hameed to issue an arrest warrant for Nausherwani, one of the accused nominated in the FIR, for his alleged non-cooperation.
The team had contacted the Balochistan Assembly speaker to ask the former home minister to cooperate in the investigation, but he had refused. Formal requests have not been made for issuing arrest warrants for others nominated in the case.
The investigating team had written to the provincial home secretary to seek his approval for obtaining arrest warrants for the others, revealed police sources.
Besides Nausherwani, former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, former Balochistan governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and former Balochistan chief minister Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf were also nominated in the FIR.
The Balochistan government had requested the federal government to extradite Musharraf. But the federal government had first asked for his arrest warrant which is required by Interpol for it to issue red warrants to nab fugitives.
Sohail Rajput, counsel for Nawab Bugti’s son, Jamil Bugti, said obtaining an arrest warrant for Nausherwani was a clever move by the government to protect influential offenders who had played a vital role in the assassination.
(With additional reporting by Shehzad Baloch)
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2011.