Musharraf’s escape: Islamabad police chief in trouble with IHC

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has held Islamabad police chief Bani Amin responsible for the police’s failure to arrest former president Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Rejecting the police’s ‘cosmetic’ actions, the court directed the interior ministry to move against Amin.

The former military ruler was allowed to leave the court by the police deployed at the high court on April 18 after his bail plea was rejected. The police did not arrest Musharraf until 24 hours later, after which he was produced before a judicial magistrate.

“I sent SSP Operation to Musharraf’s farmhouse that day but no one was there,” was the best excuse the Inspector General of Police came up with before IHC’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui when he asked the reason for Musharraf’s non-arrest. In turn, Justice Siddiqui termed the excuse “ridiculous” and accused Amin of lying before the court. “Bani Amin tried to mislead the court by giving wrong information and the court will not spare him for this,” he observed.

Justice Siddiqui went on to direct the additional interior secretary, who was present in court, to take action against Amin within 24 hours and submit a report on the next hearing – April 25.

The secretary assured the court that action would be taken against the IGP once the interior minister returned from Karachi.

Additional Inspector General (AIG) Operations Sultan Azam Temuri, the officer investigating Musharraf’s escape from the court premises, tried to bail out his boss by pinning the responsibility on two junior officers; however, the court rejected this attempt. Temuri, in his report submitted to the court, held DSP (Secretariat) Idrees Rathore and SHO Secretariat Qaiser Gillani responsible for Musharraf’s ‘escape’.

The AIG said that the SSP had deployed over 40 police personnel at the IHC, but only three were present during when Musharraf walked out. DSP Rathore was not present at the site, while the SHO did not ensure the deployment of police personnel, Temuri told the court.

Sub-jail challenged

In a related development, another IHC bench on Tuesday issued pre-admission notices to Musharraf, the Islamabad chief commissioner and Amin in response to a petition filed by a lawyer challenging the declaration of Musharraf’s Chak Shehzad farmhouse a sub-jail. The lawyer says he should have been held at Adiala jail instead.

The police had cited security threats to Musharraf’s life as the reason for not sending him to jail and requested the city administration to declare his farmhouse a sub-jail. The chief commissioner had issued a notification in this regard.

IHC’s Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan issued pre-admission notices for April 29 for a primary hearing to determine whether the petition was maintainable. Advocate Muhammad Ashraf Gujjar filed the petition, arguing that the Chief Commissioner had issued the notification in violation of section 541 according to which a house could not be declared a sub-jail for individuals.

Murder case

In another related development, the son of the former deputy cleric of the Lal Masjid Maulana Abdur Rashid Ghazi, through his counsel, filed an application in the Session Court Islamabad for registration of a murder FIR against Musharraf.

Hafiz Haroon Rashid Ghazi prayed to the court to order the police to register a murder case against Musharraf for killing his father and grandmother in the Lal Masjid operation in 2007.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2013.