BB murder: Court rejects PPP’s plea to become party to case

ATC judge says no political party can become party to a murder case.

RAWALPINDI:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday rejected Pakistan People’s Party plea to become a party to the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

When the proceedings commenced at the ATC-1, PPP counsel Sardar Latif Khosa argued since Bilawal Bhutto was the assassinated premier’s son and the party chairperson, “PPP should be allowed to become party to the case and given access to the record.”

He also complained about the slow pace at which the case was proceeding and asked the court to start the case from the point it had been adjourned, after statements of 27 witnesses were recorded, following former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s arrest.

However, ATC Special Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman turned down the application, saying a political party could not become party to a murder case.



“The case is being delayed because proceedings begin afresh whenever a new witness is produced before the court,” Khosa maintained. This will waste the court’s time, he added.

The judge said he had no objection to proceeding with the case either way and set September 17 as the next date for hearing.

The court accepted an application filed by relatives of Tauqir Akram Kaira, who was also killed in the Liaqat Bagh bomb attack and appointed Khosa as their counsel, after he submitted a power of attorney to the court.

On the last hearing, Khosa had filed two applications requesting the court to make PPP a party to the case and accept him as counsel for Kaira’s family.

Speaking to reporters, the former Punjab governor clarified that if the PPP were to become a party to the case, the trial would not have to start afresh. We didn’t make a request earlier because the PPP was in power, but now that it is in the opposition, no one will be able to point fingers, he said.

He also disputed news reports that President Asif Ali Zardari had refused to allow doctors to conduct Benazir’s postmortem, saying it was the state’s responsibility to ensure that an autopsy was carried out.

Scotland Yard was just supposed to identify the cause of Benazir’s death, he stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2013.