KARACHI, Jan 30: A police official informed the Karsaz inquiry tribunal on Wednesday that a Pakistan People’s Party official had told him that Abdul Ghani Baloch, the driver of a float carrying former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was present in Bilawal House and would be allowed to testify in the tribunal after clearance from the party’s high command.

On Jan 26, the tribunal issued a non-bailable warrant for the arrest of the float driver who had refused to accept the show-cause notice and summons, saying he would not appear before the tribunal without permission from his leadership.

On Wednesday, Bahadurabad police station house officer (SHO) Syed Zulqarnain Akhtar deposed before tribunal head Justice (retd) Dr Ghous Mohammad that he was given the non-bailable warrant for the float driver and despite several attempts he could not contact him at his residence.

“I was informed by a woman from his house that most of the time Mr Baloch was available at Bilawal House. I contacted Akram Baloch [on the phone] at Bilawal House and he told me that Mr Baloch was available in Bilawal House and he would be allowed to attend the court after getting permission from the party high command,” the SHO told the tribunal.

He assured the tribunal that he would make compliance of the non-bailable warrant if issued again.

Expressing annoyance, the tribunal ordered issuance of a non-bailable warrant against the witness as he was avoiding attending the tribunal for recording his evidence. “The process server is present and has produced a report wherein he stated that the whereabouts of the said witness were unknown and he was not available at the given address.”

Justice (retd) Dr Ghous told registrar Zahoor Ahmed Hakro to issue a proclamation for the attachment of Mr Baloch’s property and that a copy of the proclamation be affixed on the outer door of his house.

The tribunal directed the police to produce the witness in custody on Feb 2.

Meanwhile, the head of Liaquat National Hospital’s emergency department, Dr Tehseen Ansari, told the tribunal that she was on duty on Oct 18, 2007.

She said that according to the hospital record, some 79 injured were brought to the LNH, which also received 36 bodies, and those were kept outside due to lack of space in the casualty department.

Answering a question, she said she had seen four to five injured policemen, but their number could be higher.

Meanwhile, Mr Hakro told Dawn that the tribunal also summoned PPP leader Naheed Khan and medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for Feb 9.

Over 140 people were killed and some 500 wounded in the midnight blasts at Ms Bhutto’s homecoming procession near Karsaz on Oct 18.

On Oct 31, the Sindh government appointed a tribunal to investigate and ascertain the circumstances and causes that led to the twin blasts at the PPP rally. Its other terms of reference included: to examine the security arrangements made by the administration and organisers; to find out negligence and lapse on part of law-enforcement agencies as well as the organisers of the rally; to fix the responsibility against the persons/groups’ involvement in the incident and to suggest effective measures to be taken to prevent recurrence of such incident in future.