ISLAMABAD: The counsel for former president retired General Pervez Musharraf concluded the cross examination of two more prosecution witnesses in the high treason case on Tuesday.

They narrated, before the court, the facts regarding handing over of the documents pertaining to the case to a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team.

So far, the defence has completed the cross examination of five out of 10 prosecution witnesses.

The special court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of Sindh High Court (SHC), summoned FIA Additional Director Khalid Rasool to record his statements on July 9.

On Tuesday, two prosecution witnesses – Deputy Solicitor of Law Ministry Taj Umar and Producer PTV Talib Hussain – testified before the special court.

Hussain informed the court that he had handed over the copy of General Musharraf’s November 3, 2007 speech to the FIA.

He maintained that Senior Producer Zafar Iqbal Bangash had recorded the speech on November 3, and the original tape was in the PTV archives. After a general manager of PTV ordered him to provide the copy of the said speech to the FIA team on a compact disc (CD), he handed it over to director Rasool.

During the cross examination, Musharraf’s counsel Hayat asked Deputy Solicitor Khan whether he knew that Additional Director Rasool was not part of the investigation team, which was probing the high treason case. At this Khan expressed his ignorance.

Yet, he provided the documents related to the proclamation of Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and the notifications related to the appointment and sacking of Supreme Court judges to Mr Rasool, after FIA wrote a letter to the law ministry.

After completion of Rasool’s cross examination, the court will summon members of Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that probed the high treason case.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014