LAHORE May 28: Asif Ali Zardari has approached a local sessions court with a plea that his trial on charges of drug trafficking should be conducted in an open court and not within the confines of the Kot Lakhpat Jail. Additional sessions judge Mian Khadim Husain on Saturday issued notices to the Punjab home department, the prisons department and the state, seeking their opinion before adjourning till June 25 further hearing of this application as well as the main case.

Appearing on behalf of Mr Zardari, his counsel Sardar Latif Khan Khosa and Mian Jahangir said that the holding of the trial in the jail was no longer justified because one of the co-accused, Arif Baloch, had undergone his prison term in this case and was a free person now. The other co-accused, Shorang Khan, had since died.

BADR: A local accountability court on Saturday adjourned till June 4 the pronouncement of judgment in a reference against PPP secretary-general Jahangir Badr.