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KARACHI, Jan 21: An accountability court dismissed on Monday the acquittal application of a co-accused in a reference against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The application was filed for the acquittal of Najmul Hasan, a senior official of the Pakistan International Airlines, in the reference, which pertained to 1,393 illegal appointments and promotion in different cadres and postings abroad in violation of rules, regulations and procedure.
Judge Jawaid Alam of the AC-4 fixed Feb 6 for the hearing of the reference.
Other accused in the reference are Air Vice Marshal Umer Farooq (retd), former chief of PIA, Naheed Khan, former political secretary to Benazir Bhutto, Ghulam Qadir Shah Jamote, former director, administration, PIA, and Siraj Shamsuddin.
The reference was initially filed against Ahmed Sadiq, former principal secretary of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and other accused on May 15, 1997.
However, later Ahmed Sadiq was excluded from the investigation, and he was made a prosecution witness following his statement before the investigators. He stated that he had only acted upon the orders of the former prime minister.
Following his statement the prosecution agency submitted a supplementary charge against Ms Bhutto and other accused before the then Ehtesab Bench of the Sindh High Court.
Later, the case was transferred to the accountability court, which recorded the statements of the remaining prosecution witnesses.
ACQUITTED: An anti-terrorism court acquitted a man in a rape case.
Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 acquitted accused Maulvi Rafique of the charge as the prosecution could not prove its case against him.
The man was prosecuted for raping a nine-year-old girl in Korangi last year.
SENTENCED: An additional district and sessions judge, Central, sentenced a man to life term for kidnapping two brothers for ransom.
Accused Shakir Aftab, with his accomplice, Faisal, had kidnapped Syed Rizwan Ahmed and Syed Zubair Ahmed on July 22, 1995, near Gujjar Nala in the limits of Gulbahar police.
Two days later the kidnappers released Zubair asking him to bring Rs200,000 as ransom for the release of his brother. On Aug 6, a patrol of the New Town police, however, arrested accused Shakir Aftab following a shootout near Hasan Square. His accomplice, Faisal, was killed in the encounter.
Police also recovered Syed Rizwan Ahmed from the boot of the car being driven by the accused.
Accused Shakir Aftab was earlier sentenced to six years’ rigorous imprisonment for attempting to kill the policemen during the shootout.
