Ghazi murder case: Final arguments on 23rd

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notice on Thursday to the state counsel with directions to present final arguments on July 23 in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Ghazi Abdul Rasheed registered against former president and general (retired) Pervez Musharraf.

Justice Aamer Farooq issued the notice. The court also directed Musharraf’s counsel to submit a fresh medical report before the trial court as the previous report was conducted in April.

Musharraf has challenged the non-bailable arrest warrants issued in his name by a district and sessions court in Islamabad. On June 19, the District and Sessions Judge Kamran Bisharat Mufti issued warrants for Musharaf over his repeated absence in the murder trial of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi.



The sessions court had directed the police to produce President Musharraf before the court on July 24.

In the petition, Musharraf’s counsel Malik Tahir Mahmood has maintained that the trial court did not adopt procedure as envisaged under the law, acted hastily and decided the matter arbitrarily hence the impugned order is liable to be set aside.

Mahmood stated that Musharraf was in Karachi where a medical board constituted upon the directions of an ATC Quetta examined him and advised not to travel due to illness. Subsequently, the ATC Quetta exempted Musharraf from appearance, he added.

The medical report was presented before the special bench, which is conducting proceeding under Article 6 of the constitution, and the same was allowed, Mahmood stated in the petition. Even the Islamabad ATC exempted him on the basis of the same report, he added. The petition requested the court to set aside the non-bailable warrants.

Aabpara Police had registered an FIR against Musharraf for his alleged role in the murder of Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and his mother in 2013.

The court will take up the matter on July 24.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2015.