KARACHI, July 25: The district and sessions judge, Central, Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, put off the hearing of Justice Nizam murder case against Asif Ali Zardari, husband of former Premier Benazir Bhutto, and three others on the request of the defence counsel.
The judge, who is holding trial inside the Central Prison under a notification, fixed Aug 1 for the next hearing with the consent of defence lawyers and the special public prosecutor.
At the outset of the hearing around 10:50am, the judge said only accused Asif Zardari, represented by Shahadat Awan and Abu Bakar Zardari, and Bilal Shaikh were present in the court and asked the counsel for accused Javed Akhtar Pirzada and Babar Sindhu as to why their clients did not turn up.
The judge ordered Adam Jafferi and Hanif Kashmiri, counsel for Pirzada and Sindhu, to instruct their clients to appear before the court on the next hearing.
The two accused, who are on bail, were earlier exempted by the court from personal appearance during the hearing.
The judge also asked Bilal Shaikh about the absence of his attorney. The accused told the court that his counsel had gone to Sialkot to attend the funeral of one of his relatives. The judge ordered him to submit an application for seeking an adjournment.
Justice Nizam Ahmed of Sindh High Court and his son Nadim Ahmed, a lawyer, were shot dead in an attack on June 10, 1996, near their residence at PECH Society. The Ferozabad police had registered the case initially against unknown assailants on the the complaint by Group Captain (Rtd) Sikandar, brother-in-law of Justice Nizam Ahmed.
According to the prosecution, Justice Nizam and his son were killed on a dispute over a plot adjacent to the Awami Markaz. The judge had opposed commercialization and allotment of the plot, which was stated to be purchased by Javed Akhtar Pirzada as a front man Mr Zardari.
The judge also ordered the jail superintendent not to shift Mr Zardari from Karachi till the next hearing.
Later, talking to Dawn, Mr Zardari said the parliament was the forum to decide the fate of the Legal Framework Order. “The government must present the LFO before the parliament”, he emphasised.
He dispelled the impression that the stand of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and other opposition parties had softened.
To a question, he said he would prefer to face the trial instead of bargaining on his release.
“If they are willing to withdraw cases, they can do so, but I am not going to beg for it”, he said and added that cases against him were registered against him to victimize him politically.
Mr Asif said there would be a “full-fledged” democracy in the country very soon as the government would not be able to complete its tenure. “The year 2004 would be the year of elections”, he reiterated.
He also welcomed the recent visit of Maulana Fazalur Rahman, a leader of the MMA, to India.
