September 8, 2005	Thursday	Sha’aban 3, 1426

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FAISALABAD, Sept 7: The counsel for accused SP Abdullah Khalid deposed before the one-man tribunal of District and Sessions Judge Abdul Waheed Khan on Wednesday that their client had proof of contacts between Sonia Naz and her husband Asim Yousaf. The tribunal continued proceedings of the Sonia Naz case and recorded statements of another four people.

The accused’s counsel filed an application with the tribunal, claiming that he had evidence and proof of Sonia’s contacts with her husband Asim Yousaf. The couple contacted each other through their cell phones, they said, describing the allegations against the police officials as baseless.

The tribunal asked the police to provide the cell phone company’s official documents confirming contacts between the couple.

DSP (City) Malik Muhammad Rasheed informed the tribunal that he had visited the Dastak Center in Lahore again and asked Sonia to appear before the judge, but she after contacting her lawyer Asma Jehangir expressed her inability to attend the proceedings owing to her ‘poor health’.

The judge directed the police to ensure Sonia’s presence on Friday (tomorrow) and issued summons.

Muhammad Azam, a resident of Islamabad, appeared before the tribunal and claimed that his friend Muhammad Arshad had contacted him on April 21 this year and asked him to arrange for the bail of Sonia, who was booked by the police for trespassing on parliament.

Azam said he had arranged lawyers for the release of Sonia whose husband Asim Yousaf paid him Rs30,000 through his bank account. He claimed that he talked with Asim during that period.

Akhtar Ali, an employee of the Anti-Corruption Department, said a fraud case had been registered against excise clerk Asim Yousaf, but he could not be rounded up. Subsequently, he was formally declared an absconder.

Advocate Liaquat Awan told the judge that he met Asim when he was in the police custody after a raid on the Faisalabad Excise and Taxation Department.

SI Fayyaz, who had been missing for the last many days, had recorded his statement the other day. SP Abdullah, who has been transferred in the wake of rape allegations, and suspended inspector Jamshed Iqbal Chishti, besides a number of police personnel were present.

Meanwhile, scores of representatives of NGOs were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the accused in the local district courts. Some policemen in plainclothes chanted slogans in favour of their colleagues.

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