KARACHI, Aug 27: Special Public Prosecutor M. Ilyas Khan on Wednesday requested district and sessions Judge, East, Ali Sain Dino Metlo, to issue bailable warrants for arrest of three medico-legal officers.

The request came as only one MLO, Dr Dilip Khatri, appeared before the judge hearing the murder case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Ashique Hussain Jatoi and six other workers of the Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto).

MLOs Dr Ahmed Ali, Dr Liaquat Brohi and Dr Kaleem, who had examined and treated a number of workers who were injured in the shootout of Sept 20, 1996, failed to appear as prosecution witnesses.

Dr Khatri deposed about the postmortems he conducted of an unknown person and Sajjad Haider, an activist of the party. Ilyas Khan conducted the examination.

During cross-examination by Choudhry Iftikhar Ahmed and Adam bin Jaffery advocates, counsels for accused police officials, Dr Shoaib Sudddle, Rai Tahir, Shahid Hayat and Abdul Basit, admitted that he had made a number of entries on the medico-legal reports after consultation with the senior MLOs.

He admitted that the entries were made with a different pen.

He denied the suggestion that he was deposing falsely at the behest of the investigating officer, Noor Mohammed Pechoho.

On a query by the judge, deputy superintendent of police, legal, Anwar Subhani, stated that other prosecution witnesses were bound to appear but they had failed to turn up.

The judge asked him to ensure the attendance of the witnesses.

The court deferred till the next hearing on Sept 3 its orders on an application moved by the state for the transfer of the custody of the main accused, former senator Asif Ali Zardari, to Punjab.

Defence counsel Barrister Azizullah K. Shaikh opposed the application.—APP