KARACHI, Nov 23: An anti-terrorism court, headed by Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio, will hear final arguments in President General Pervez Musharraf’s murder conspiracy case on Saturday as the defence counsel opted to close his side instead of requesting the court to order production of any other witness.

When the court resumed the hearing inside the Central Prison Karachi on Friday with the scheduled testimony of the security officer who was responsible for the president’s security arrangements on that particular day, defence counsel Abdul Waheed Katpar said he was closing his side and did not want to call any other defence witness.

Special public prosecutor Naimat Rindhawa told Dawn that the defence counsel informed the court that the then SSP Security, Azizur Rehman, had been killed and now he did not want to call any other defence witness.

The court will hear the final arguments of the defence and prosecution today.

Earlier, six accused Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Hanif alias Ayub, Mohammad Ashraf, Waseem Akhtar, Mohammad Jamil and Arsalan alias Sharib, all alleged militants of Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, had recorded their statements under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code on Wednesday.

They requested the court to summon the police officer responsible for the overall security arrangement for the president’s scheduled visit to Karachi on April 26, 2002. The court had granted the request by issuing notice to the then SSP Security for Friday.

According to the prosecution, the accused had planned to assassinate President General Pervez Musharraf as they were against the government policies on Afghanistan and Kashmir.Informing the court about the modus operandi the alleged militants had adopted for the assassination, the prosecution said they had parked an explosive-laden vehicle near Falak Naz plaza to blow up the presidential convoy that was scheduled to pass on Sharea Faisal. The remote-controlled device failed to work when they tried to detonate the device while the president cavalcade was on Sharea Faisal.

Police arrested the two accused, Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Hanif, who confessed during interrogation that they wanted to kill the president for his anti-Taliban and pro-US policies. Later, the police managed to pick up other accused in their custody on the tip provided by the accused.

The case was referred to anti-terrorism court which conducted the trial and convicted Imran, Hanif and Ashraf. The court however acquitted Waseem, Sharib and Naveed by giving them the benefit of the doubt.

The accused later filed an appeal in the High Court of Sindh which set aside the conviction and sent the case for retrial to anti-terrorism court.