KARACHI, Aug 5: Asif Ali Zardari moved on Tuesday an application for his acquittal in the Sajjad Hussain murder case as an additional district and sessions court indicted him and a co-accused in the case.

The two accused pleaded “not guilty” before Judge Abrar Hussain Memon, who fixed August 11 for hearing the acquittal application filed by defence counsel Shahadat Awan under section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The judge, who is holding the trial inside the Central Prison, also issued notice to the state attorney for his arguments on Mr Zardari’s acquittal application and ordered the prosecution to produce its witnesses on the next date.

Mr Zardari, who was acquitted last month in two cases of attempt to commit suicide, and co-accused Mohammed Khan Chachar, were charged with the murder of Sajjad Hussain, a former chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills.

The former PSM chief was shot dead on September 11, 1998 in Defence while he was on his way home. The police had initially registered the case against unknown assailants.

Defence counsel Shahadat Awan submitted before the court that the wife of co-accused Chachar filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court, alleging her husband was being tortured in the police custody. He said the woman also attached with her petition a letter written by accused Chachar, wherein he stated that he was being forced to implicate Mr Zardari in the case.

The counsel stated that the charge was groundless and there was absolutely no probability of conviction of the accused.

He contended that the case was an outcome of political victimisation and a tool for exerting pressure on the applicant. “The accused is a former senator and husband of for prime minister Benazir Bhutto.” He said the former premier and her entire family were put to persecution immediately after the dismissal of her government in November 1996.

Mr Awan said there was sufficient material on record that Chachar raised voice at different legal forums that he was being pressured to make false statements against his client.

He said the alleged statement of Chachar was concocted by the police. He submitted that even otherwise the alleged statement was inadmissible under Article 38 of the Qanoon-i-Shahadat.

Besides, Mr Awan submitted that the statement of prosecution witnesses under section 161 CrPC were recorded at a belated stage. He said the police report was submitted with a delay of more than three years, which was a violation of mandatory provision of Section 173 of the CrPC.

According to the interim charge-sheet, the SHO of the Defence police arrested Salim Uddin alias Salloo and Sohail Ahmed alias Panga on September 3, 1999. The two suspects, during interrogation, disclosed that accused Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had telephoned them in September 1998 and asked them to kill the former PSM chief because he was going to make a statement against Asif Ali Zardari in a corruption case.

They said they along with Chachar came to the Defence Club in Chachar’s car on the instructions of Dr Mirza. They said they chased the victim when he came out and Chachar, who was driving the car, opened fired from his pistol on Sajjad Hussain while overtaking his car.

The interim charge-sheet stated that later the local police released the two suspects “due to unknown reasons”. It said that on July 28, 2001 a written order was received from the higher authorities to get the custody of Chachar, who was in jail in Rahim Yar Khan after being condemned to death in a murder case of the Lahore police.

Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, Dr Nisar and Sohail Panga have been declared absconding accused in the case.

Chachar had also moved an application before the trial court in February last year, praying the court not to grant police any further time “for cooking up any false evidence in this case”.

In his application he also stated that he had not made any confession before the police. “I was given inducements by the Crime Branch Police that if I turned approver against Asif Ali Zardari, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and others, I will be let off in the Lahore murder case, my death sentence will be set aside, and, I, along with my wife and children, will be sent abroad and will be settled in a country such as Canada on the state expenses as was done for the approver, Masood, in the murder case of Ahmed Raza Kasuri against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.”

Mr Zardari was initially detained on November 5, 1996 under the Maintenance of Public Order following the dismissal of the Benazir government by the then president, Mohammed Farooq Leghari. Later he was arrested in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case after the Sindh High Court set aside his detention under MPO.