Lal Masjid case: Musharraf files bail plea

Counsel argues he was wrongly implicated in case.

ISLAMABAD:

Former president Pervez Musharraf has filed a bail plea in connection with the Lal Masjid case in a district court on Saturday.

The bail application was filed by the retired army chief’s counsel in an additional district and session court. The counsel stated his client was wrongly implicated in the case. The court issued notices to Haroon Rasheed and the state.

Advocate Ilyas Siddiqui, the counsel for Musharraf maintained that his client was arrested by the police in connection with the Lal Masjid case, despite the fact that he was not responsible for launching the operation in 2007.  “My client has already been on judicial remand for two weeks and he should therefore be granted bail.” Siddiqui argued that the first information report (FIR) was based on mala fide intentions as the operation was carried out on the orders of then-Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and was based on a federal cabinet decision.

The state and Haroon Rasheed, son of Lal Masjid deputy cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi have been cited as respondents in the petition. The case was adjourned till October 18.

The Aabpara Police had registered an FIR in September this year on the direction of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in response to a complaint filed by Rasheed. Musharraf was rearrested on Thursday for initiating the Lal Masjid operation in 2007 just when he was about to be released from jail after the Supreme Court accepted his bail plea in the Akbar Bugti murder case.

Musharraf had already obtained bail in the Benazir Bhutto murder case and the judges’ detention case, which are being heard by anti-terrorism courts in the twin cities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2013.