Khwaja Sharif murder plot: 3 Special Branch men given protective bail till August 23

Men accused of conspiring to create differences between govt and judiciary.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted protective bail to three officials of the Special Branch, allegedly involved in releasing a false intelligence report about there being a plot to murder former high court chief justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif.

The Federal Investigation Agency Punjab had registered a case against the three suspects –Special Branch Punjab Director Shahid Mehmood, Muhammad Azam and Ijaz Ahmad. The agency report says that the men had hatched a conspiracy and written a false intelligence report to create differences among the federal government, the provincial government and the judiciary.

The accused submitted through their counsel that they had been wrongly charged by the FIA.

They prayed that protective bail be granted to them and the FIA be restrained from arresting them so that they can approach the competent court for bail.

Justice Ali Baqir Najfi granted them protective bail till August 23 and directed the FIA not to arrest them. The judge also directed the accused to apply for bail at the trial court.

Special Branch Punjab Chief Col (retired) Ehsanur Rehman, Secretary to the Punjab chief minister Tauqeer Shah and a PML-N worker Talha Burki are also named in the agency report.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2012.