September 16, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 03, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 15: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday asked the complainant of the Sabzazaar police encounter to produce the evidence of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif’s property.

Complainant Saeeduddin, whose son was allegedly gunned down in the encounter, seeks confiscation of the former chief minister’s property. He states that Shahbaz had ordered extra-judicial killing of five people when he was the chief minister.

Aftab Ahmad Bajwa, the counsel for the complainant, said the court could confiscate Shahbaz’s property because it had declared him a proclaimed offender on June 17, 2004, under Section 87 of CrPC.

He said under Section 88 of the CrPC, the court could order confiscation of an accused’s property, moveable or immoveable, if he did not appear in court despite repeated calls.

The complainant in the FIR states ASI Lala Roshan violated the sanctity of his house on April 21, 1998, and took his son Salahuddin to the police station without any justification. He said the ASI handed Salahuddin over to Muslim Town SHO Babar Ashraf and demanded Rs5,000 for his release, which his father did not pay.

He said on April 27, 1998, he found through a newspaper that his son and four others — Wakeel, Waseem, Haider and Abdul Rauf — were killed in a shootout with the Sabzazaar police.

He said the encounter was staged on the direction of Shahbaz Sharif who had been keen on quick-fixing the law and order. The other accused in the case included former Lahore SSP Ahmad Raza Tahir, DSP Umar Virk, Muhammad Asghar, ASIs Zulfiqar Ahmad and Lala Roshan, head-constable Noorul Hasan, constable Abid Husain, Shamshad Ahmad, Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Riaz, Manzoor Ahmad and Hakim Ali.

The hearing will resume on Sept 22.

Zardari: An additional district and sessions judge on Saturday deferred till Oct 1 hearing of an application of Asif Zardari seeking exemption from personal appearance in a drug case.

Zardari’s counsel pleaded that his client could not appear before the court as he was abroad for medical treatment and his consultant had forbidden him travelling.

A drug-trafficking case had been registered against Asif Ali Zardari in 1998 on the confession of Arif Baloch, who was arrested by Qila Gujar police. During investigation, Baloch had stated that Zardari used to provide him with drugs for sale.

The judge had twice issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Zardari for his production before the court.

plea against govt: The Lahore High Court’s registrar office has refused to entertain a petition, seeking directions to the federal government to eliminate foreign interference in the state affairs.

The office stated that the LHC’s principal seat had no jurisdiction to issue such a direction to the federal government. It said the petition should be filed before the LHC’s Rawlapindi bench, the lawyers told Dawn.

The petitioner alleged that Nawaz Sharif was deported on the directions of the US government.

He said the US government had sent Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz and Saad Hariri to Pakistan to dissuade the former premier from staying in Pakistan. —Reporter