Lal Masjid murder case: Court issues bailable arrest warrant for former president

Musharraf will ‘have to appear in court for his hearing’.

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court issued on Tuesday a bailable arrest warrant for former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Ghazi Abdul Rasheed.

Rejecting all four applications of the suspect, Additional District and Sessions Judge Wajid Ali Khan issued a warrant for him because he had failed to appear in court for his hearing.

Musharraf’s counsels have been trying to avoid a court appearance citing ill health and security fears.

They had also challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter, maintaining that the case was pending in the Supreme Court and a hearing should not be conducted until the apex court’s verdict.

In the first application the counsels had said the additional district and sessions judge had no jurisdiction to hear the case and it should be sent back to the judicial magistrate.

In the second plea they had requested the court to defer the case until the apex court’s verdict in the Lal Masjid case.

The third application stated that the court could not summon Musharraf because the police had placed his name in the second column of the charge sheet submitted in the court.

In the final plea the legal team had maintained that Musharraf could not appear before the court because of security threats and ill health.

On Tuesday the court in its short order dismissed all four applications stating that the suspect would have to appear before the court and only then would the court decide whether or not he should be indicted on the charges.

Issuing the warrant, the court directed the police not to arrest Musharraf if he assured through surety bonds that he would appear in court for the next hearing to take place on April 2.

In 2013 police had registered a case against the former president booking him for the murder of Rasheed and his wife during the Lal Masjid military operation.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2015.