Benazir assassination case: Court extends interim bail of accused police officials

ATC extends the interim bail of former CPO Saud Aziz and SP Khurrum Shahzad till December 22.

RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) extended the interim bail of former city police officer (CPO) Saud Aziz and superintendant police (SP) Khurrum Shahzad till December 22 in the assassination case of Benazir Bhutto.

The court will hear the arguments of both sides on the Federal Investigation Authority’s (FIA) Joint investigation Team’s (JIT) application for cancelation of bails so the former police officials could be arrested and subsequently investigated.

During the course of the hearing on Saturday, the legal counsel of Aziz and Shahzad presented a letter which the former wrote to the-then Inspector General (IG), seeking permission for conducting Benazir Bhutto’s post-mortem. Since President Asif Ali Zardari did not give permission for the post-mortem, the-then IG replied that legally the police could not conduct an autopsy if the victim’s family is not interested.

The legal counsel of both the police officials admitted before the court that Aziz deputed the-then SP Ashfaq Anwar to Koral Chowk with good intention.  He maintained that important evidence was collected before hosing down the crime scene and therefore the allegation levelled against him was not true.

The public prosecutors Chaudhary Zulfiqar and Chaudhary Azhar, however, maintained that both the police officials were directly responsible for replacing the-then SP from Benazir Bhutto’s security, while deputing him at Koral Chowk, and hosing down the crime scene.

The police officials should be formally charged and arrested and their bail cancelled if the case is to progress, said Chuadhary Zulfiqar before the court. He maintained that solid evidence against the accused has already been presented in the court.

Seven suspects, including the two police officials are likely to be formally charged on the next date of the hearing. Meanwhile, the court is also expected to announce its decision regarding President Zardari’s sister Dr Azra Afzal’s application for superdari of Benazir Bhutto’s vehicles, including the one bearing registration no BF-7772, which were used for her security. In response to the application, JIT officials have said the vehicles are an important part of evidence and cannot be returned until the decision of the case is announced.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2010.