KARACHI, July 10: The district and sessions judge, East, Ali Sain Dino Matilo, put off on Thursday hearing of the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case, on the request of the defence counsel for Asif Ali Zardari, the interned husband of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Defence counsel Shahadat Awan moved an application in the court, praying it to adjourn the hearing as the chief defence counsel, Barrister Azizullah Shaikh, was unable to attend the proceedings.

The judge, who is holding the trial inside the Central Prison, granted the defence counsel’s application and fixed July 16 for the next hearing of the case.

Mr Awan submitted before the court that Mr Shaikh needed time for going through the case file to refresh his memory as the case started proceeding after over two years.

The defence counsel stated that Mr Zardari was shifted to Karachi all of a sudden and the chief defence counsel had yet to prepare himself to cross examine the 17th prosecution witness.

The judge had earlier reserved the cross-examination of Ghulam Mustafa, an eye-witness to the incident, due to the absence of Barrister Shaikh.

The judge reminded Mr Awan that he had earlier stated before the court that he (Mr Awan) would cross examine the prosecution witness in case of absence of Barrister Shaikh.

The judge also remarked that though the prosecution witness had said nothing about Mr Zardari, his counsel still wanted to cross examine him.

Special public prosecutor, Ilyas Khan, told the court that he wanted to proceed with the case as four doctors were also present to record their deposition. He suggested that Mr Zardari’s counsel could always recall the witness for cross examination.

He submitted that Mr Zardari was to be shifted back to Punjab, where he was also facing trial. “I have been advised to seek court’s permission for shifting Mr Zardari to Punjab”, he told the court.

Judge Matilo observed that since the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case had been pending for a long time, Mr Zardari might be kept here (Karachi) at least for one month.

Defence attorneys for all other accused have been given opportunity to cross-examine the 17th out of 223 prosecution witnesses.

The defence lawyers had, on Monday, resumed the cross-examination of Ghulam Mustafa, who had recorded his statement two years ago.

Mir Murtaza Bhutto, the youngest son of late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and brother of the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed along with six others, including his close aide, Ashiq Jatoi, in September 1996, some 100 meters from his Clifton residence by a heavy contingent of police, in an alleged shootout.

Asif Ali Zardari, spouse of Benazir Bhutto, former DIG of Karachi, Shoaib Suddle, the then senior superintendent of police, South, Wajid Durrani, then chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Masood Sharif, then SP of Saddar, Shahid Hiyat, then ASP of Darkhshan, Rai Mohammed Tahir, then SHO of Garden police station, Shabbir ahmed Qaimkhani, then SHO of Napier PS, Agha Mohammed Jameel, ASI, Abdul Basit, head constables, Muslim Shah and Faisal Hafeez, and constables, Zafar Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Ghulam Mustafa, Ahmed Khan, Raja Hameed, Gulzar Khan, Zakir Mehmood and Ghulam Shabbir, have been charged with the killing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and others. They all are on bail in the case.

The ailing husband of the prime minister, who was brought to the Central Prison around 11am in an armoured personnel carrier, has been lodged at the Clifton campus of the Ziauddin Memorial Hospital.

Meanwhile, Khalid Mehmood, defence counsel for Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani and Agha Jameel, moved an application before the court for conducting inquiry to satisfy itself (the court) to the credibility of the prosecution witnesses.

The application was filed under section 304 of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, read with Article 17 of the Qanoon-i-Shahadat, to conduct the proceedings of “Tazkiya-al-Shahood”.

The judge will hear arguments on the application during next hearing.

Defence counsel Farooq Naek, Chaudhry Iftikhar, Kazi M Ashraf, Khawaja Naveed and Ahtesham Ullah Khan were also present in the court.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Aftab Shabaan Mirani, Munawwar Soharwardi, Abdullah Murad, Rafique Engineer, Javed Shah, Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Hariram Kishorilal, Syed Ghulam Mustafa, Habib Junedi, Asghar bihari and Sohail Peter, also visited Mr Zardari after the hearing.