ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to former president Pervez Musharraf, secretary interior and the capital police on a petition seeking trial of the retired general in the IHC instead of the sessions court in the Abdul Rasheed Ghazi murder case.

Under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), murder cases are tried in the sessions court and the case filed by Haroon Rasheed, the son of Rasheed Ghazi, is also pending adjudication in the sessions court of Islamabad. The petition seeking the trial at the high court level was filed with the IHC in October.

Tariq Asad, the counsel for petitioner Haroon Rasheed, alleged before the court that Musharraf was involved in the murder of his father and a number of other people during the 2007 operation on Lal Masjid.

He requested the court to conduct the trial of the former military ruler at the high court level.

Meanwhile, additional district and sessions judge Wajid Ali on Tuesday issued the detailed order on the bail petition of the former president in the same case. The court granted bail to Musharraf on Monday.

According to the court record, the prosecution as well as complainant Haroon Rasheed could not bring on the court record even an iota of evidence which could relate Gen Musharraf with the operation of Lal Masjid.

“Perusal of record reveals that the present case was lodged after about six years of the occurrence for which no plausible explanation has been advanced. Such a long and unexplained delay in lodging the FIR itself makes the prosecution case doubtful.”

The court added: “It is not the case of prosecution that accused (Gen Musharraf) actually participated in the military operation conducted at the Lal Masjid/Jamia Hafsa…..the case of the prosecution against the accused is that of abetment/instigation” and the operation was conducted on his directions.

The court, however, observed that there was not even single documentary evidence on the record to prove that the military operation was ordered or directed by the accused in his capacity as the president of Pakistan.

“The FIR, apparently, has been lodged on the findings of the judicial commission appointed on the direction of Supreme Court of Pakistan. However, such findings of the commission are not available on record of the present case.

“Moreover, the excerpts narrated in the FIR from the report of the commission are opinions of various persons embodied and recorded by the commission. Such opinions cannot be accepted as evidence against the accused.”

Referring to the police challan in which Musharraf had been declared innocent, the court observed that an opinion of the police, though not binding on the court, was always a good ground for the grant of bail when it received support from the record.