March 25, 2006	Saturday	Safar 24, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 24: The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on Friday took up for hearing the case of four persons sentenced to death by a military court for their involvement in an assassination attempt on President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Col (retired) Muhammad Akram and Hashmat Ali Habib appeared before Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah and argued that on the directives of the Supreme Court, the execution of Mushtaq Ahmad, a co-accused in the case, had been stopped. The apex court summoned the attorney-general in the case on April 12.

They requested the court to delay the execution of the remaining four persons till the apex court decided the case of Mushtaq Ahmad.

Hearing these arguments, the learned judge directed the petitioners counsels to appear before him on March 27 and present the Supreme Court’s decision.

The four persons sentenced to death by the Field Court Martial General are chief technician (Pakistan Air Force) Khalid Mehmood, corporal technician Nawazish Ali and junior technicians Niaz Ahmad and Adnan Rashid.

They were accused of planting a bomb under the Jhanda Chichi Bridge in Rawalpindi to blow it off when Gen Musharraf’s motorcade was just passing through it on March 14, 2003. According to the military court decision, they are to be executed on March 28.