KARACHI, Oct 17: The hearing of the US Consulate car bombing case was put off on Thursday for the eighth consecutive time without any significant proceedings as the advocate general of Sindh did not turn up before the trial court.

Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the anti-terrorism court No. 1, who is conducting the trial inside the Central Prison, Karachi, fixed 21st for the next hearing, and directed the secretaries of provincial law and home departments to ensure the appearance of the provincial chief prosecutor before the court.

The trial of the self-styled chief of his own Aalmi faction of Harkatul Mujahideen, Mohammed Imran, his deputy, Mohammed Ashraf, and finance secretary, Mohammed Hanif, and two other workers, Sharib Farooqui and Zubair Mufti, has not proceeded since Aug 24, when the judge recorded the statement of the first prosecution witness.

Earlier on Aug 19 the court declared six Aalmi workers — Sharib son of Shamim Ahmed, Kamran son of Abdus Salam, Mohammed Jameel son of Mohammed Usman, Naveed Hasan son of Colonel Waheed, Habib Ullah Khattak son of Iman Ullah Khattak and Mustafa, a resident of Navel Colony — absconders.

On Aug 21, the judge formally indicted the three leaders of the Aalmi, who pleaded not guilty.

Later, the police arrested two absconders — Sharib and Zubair — and submitted a supplementary charge-sheet against the two workers and sent them up for the trial.

In the meanwhile, the then special public prosecutor of the case was appointed judge of the ATC-2 on Sept 26 and the provincial authorities notified the appointment of Raja Qureshi, AG of Sindh, for representing the prosecution in the case.

The judge in a letter to the provincial law and home secretaries also directed them to appoint any other prosecutor in case as the Sindh chief prosecutor was not available to proceed with the case.

Following the arrest of two absconding accused, the court is now to formally indict all the accused afresh.

However, under the law, the court would frame formal charges on the defendants seven days after the prosecution supplied the two subsequently arrested accused with the copies of certain documents, including the FIR and charge-sheet (challan).

The leaders and workers of the Aalmi were charged with the June 14 US Consulate car bombing that had killed 12 people, including five women, and injured 43 others. They are facing charges under sections 302, 324,427 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), section 3/4 of the Explosive Act, and section 7-B of the Anti-terrorist Act.