December 4, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 3: District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Asad Raza here on Wednesday reserved till Dec 5 (Friday) his ruling on a bail application filed on behalf of Javed Hashmi, ARD president.

Special prosecutor Munir Bhatti presented before the court a charge sheet involving some other parliamentarians in the case for asking Mr Hashmi to read a forged letter out to the press.

The accused lawmakers include People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader Liaquat Baloch, Aitezaz Ahsan and Nayyer Bukhari of the PPP, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Mian Muhammad Aslam and Hanif Abbasi of the MMA and Abid Sher Ali of the PML-N.

The judge allowed the ARD chief to meet his counsels during the judicial remand in Central Jail Adiyala, Rawalpindi. According to the permission, the penal of Mr Hashmi’s counsels, comprising Aitezaz Ahsan, Raja Zafarul Haq, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Latif Khosa and Khawaja Asif, can meet him.

On an application filed for granting A-class to Mr Hashmi in the jail, the judge directed the jail authorities to apprise the court as to what class had been given to the ARD chief.

The prosecution and defence counsels completed their arguments on Wednesday. The hearing of the case lasted for six hours as it began at 11am and continued till 5pm.

Special prosecutor Munir Bhatti argued that his client Khurshid Ahmed had stated in the FIR that Mr Hashmi read a forged letter out to the press to abet mutiny among the army ranks.

Mr Bhatti said an army official, who was present on the occasion, felt insult by the statement which Mr Hashmi had attributed to some army officials in the GHQ.

Defence counsels Latif Khosa and Syed Zafar Ali Shah contended that a fake case was registered against their client.

They wondered how complainant Khursheed got to know that the letter was a forged one.

Later, speaking to Dawn advocate Syed Zafar Ali Shah said he was not hopeful that Mr Hashmi would be released on bail.

“The prosecution has submitted the charge sheet in the court, which means that it wants to initiate his trial immediately,” Mr Shah said.

Javed Hashmi, who is also acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) was arrested on Oct 29, 2003, on the charges of abetting a mutiny and issuing statements against the army.