11 April 2004	Sunday	20 Safar 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 10: The district and sessions judge, Asad Raza, on Saturday reserved his judgement in the sedition case against ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi until Monday.

The court, hearing the case inside the Adiyala Jail in Rawalpindi, reserved the judgement after defence counsel Manzoor Ahmed Malik and Chaudhry Arif Hussain had concluded their arguments.

Mr Hashmi was arrested on Oct 29 under the PPC sections 124-A (defaming the government and army), 131 (incitement to mutiny), 505(a) (defaming army), 500 (defaming army officers) and 468, 469 and 471 (document forgery) after he had read out at an Oct 20 news conference an unsigned letter that had been allegedly sent to some parliamentarians by unknown army personnel.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Malik said that in his arguments he had challenged the jurisdiction of the court. He said the accused was elected five times as member of the National Assembly. He maintained that the allegation of mutiny levelled against Mr Hashmi was an insult to his voters.