Bhutto murder case: Court reserves order on acquittal of police

FIA prosecutor says agency has ‘strong evidence’ against two accused police officers.

RAWALPINDI:

A trial court hearing the assassination case of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is likely to announce an order on the acquittal applications of two accused police officers on October 15.

Special Judge ATC-I Shahid Rafique, while carrying out proceedings at Adiala Jail on Saturday, reserved his order after the prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the lawyer for former Rawalpindi city police officer (CPO) Saud Aziz and former SP Khurram Shahzad concluded their arguments. The next date of the hearing is October 15.

Represented by Barrister Muhammad Suleman, the two police officers maintained, in their application under section 265-D of the CrPC, that the FIA could not provide any evidence or witnesses against them.

They said that the FIA had already endorsed the findings of the Punjab police as well as earlier investigations carried out by them. This shows that police officers were not involved in the assassination and rather had successfully carried out the investigations and arrested as many as five accused, the lawyer added.

On the other hand, FIA prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said that agency has ‘strong evidence’ against the two officers and if a trial was carried out, they could be convicted.

The prosecutor contended that the former CPO was accused of ‘taking away’ the elite squad responsible for protecting Bhutto on December 27, 2007.  Later, the prosecution lawyer said that the police officers hastily ordered the crime scene to be hosed down allegedly in the bid to destroy important evidence.

The court could not take up the application filed by Sabah Musharraf challenging the confiscation of her husband’s property after declaring him a proclaimed offender in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.