High-profile case: Judgment reserved on Benazir murder case retrial

Anti-terrorism court defers the hearing till October 1.

RAWALPINDI:

Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday reserved its judgment in the Benazir Bhutto murder case as attorneys for defence and prosecution completed their arguments.

When the hearing started, the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s lawyer Ilyas Siddiqi urged the court to re-record the statements of the witnesses. “Musharraf was abroad when the statements were recorded. It is his legal right that statements of the witnesses be recorded in front of him,” he said.

However, Malik Muhammad Rafiq – the lawyer representing former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Saud Aziz and Superintendent Police (SP) Khurram Shehzad, objected to it, saying that it would further delay the case. Rafiq also objected to Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) General Secretary Latif Khosa’s application to become party in the case. “Why they [the PPP] did not become a party when they were in power?”

Barrister Latif Khosa, representing Tauqir Akram Kaira who lost his life along with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the Liaquat Bagh blast in 2007, replied that the PPP did not become a party in the case precisely because it was the ruling party, adding that he was then serving as the attorney general and later as Punjab governor.

Barrister Rafiq said the case had already been pending for the last five years. “First Punjab Police carried out investigations then it was transferred to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the supervision of former Interior Minister Rehman Malik and now restarting the trial would mean further delay,” he said.

Khosa agreed to Rafiq’s argument that the re-recording of statements of witnesses would waste the court’s time and national money. “Therefore the case must be started where it was left off,” he said, requesting the court to accelerate the proceedings for its earlier disposal.

FIA special prosecutor Chauddy Azhar Ai told the court that the former FIA public prosecutor in the case Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali had already been gunned down and witnesses had been convinced with much difficulty.

“Recording their statements once again will disappoint the witnesses while a retrial will also give benefit to the killers of Chaudhry Zulfiqar,” he added.

The court after completion of arguments put aside the decision over retrial of the case and deferred the hearing till October 1, 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.