KARACHI, Jan 22: An anti-terrorism court on Monday heard the arguments of the special public prosecutor who has sought retrial of a case pertaining to a plot to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf against two members of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, who have been acquitted in the case.

Judge Ghulam Ali A. Samtio fixed January 26 for the pronouncement of the order after hearing the arguments of SPP Naimat Ali Randhawa who had moved an application in the ATC-1 to issue warrants for the arrest of Sharib and Wasim Akhtar, acquitted by the then ATC-1 Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi on October 18, 2003.

Judge Samtio is conducting the retrial of Aalmi chief, Mohammed Imran, his deputy, Mohammed Hanfi, and finance secretary Mohammed Ashraf, who were sentenced to 10-year term by Judge Rizvi.

The retrial of the Aalmi men was ordered by the Sindh High Court on November 10, 2006 on the appeal of the convicts against the trial court judgment.

The prosecutor submitted that the SHC had set aside the whole judgment of the trial court and ordered it to hold a retrial from the stage of indictment. He said the conviction and acquittal of the accused were set aside and, as such, the acquitted men should also be retried.

The Aalmi men were charged with hatching a conspiracy to blow up the president’s motorcade in April 2002. According to the prosecution, a pick-up, loaded with explosives, was parked near a shop in Falaknaz Arcade on Sharea Faisal and the absconding accused, Kamran, was in possession of the remote control with intention to blow up the explosives on arrival of the president’s motorcade on the spot.

Kamran had positioned himself at a petrol pump near Star Gate on Sharea Faisal. He pressed the remote control button several a times but the vehicle did not explode, the prosecution claimed, adding that one, Naveed, had assembled the explosive device and its remote control.