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Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Razzaq dismissed an application filed on behalf of the accused by Advocate Waqar Shah challenging the jurisdiction of the court to reopen the proceedings of Sections 87 (proclamation for person absconding) and 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the criminal procedure code against his client.
The court had reserved its order on the application after hearing the public prosecutor, Kaleemullah, who strongly opposed it.
Earlier on July 20, the court had directed the accused to surrender himself to court within 10 days i.e. July 30.
The court reissued a non-bailable arrest warrant through the home department against Rana Maqbool, directing it to arrest and produce the accused in court by Aug 21.
Through Advocate Rana Shamim, the accused also filed two applications in court requesting it to recall the non-bailable warrants issued against him, to suspend the proceedings of Sections 87 and 88 of the CrPC against him as well as to exempt him from personal appearance. The applications are likely to be taken up on Aug 4.
Former chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother Mujibur Rehman Khan, former Sindh police chief Rana Maqbool, former DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi and then superintendent of the Karachi central prison Najaf Mirza are booked in the case.
According to the prosecution, the accused had obtained the physical custody of Mr Zardari from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and 16, 1999 and taken him to the CIA centre and tortured him to extract incriminatory statements.
His tongue was slashed and he bled profusely, but the police refused to register an FIR against the then IG and covered up the incident as an attempt to commit suicide by Mr Zardari.
However, a case (FIR 16/2005) was registered in February 2005 at the Artillery Maidan police station after an inquiry conducted by a district and sessions judge established that the injuries were not self-inflicted.
The trial court, however, disposed of the case and discharged all the accused in June 2006 for want of evidence. Mr Zardari had moved an application in the Sindh High Court to challenge the trial court's order. On May 27, 2008 a single bench of the SHC suspended the trial court's order.
All the accused were declared proclaimed offenders on Sept 30, 2008 since the police failed to execute their non-bailable arrest warrants. Later, one of the accused, SP Najaf Mirza, appeared in court and got his pre-arrest bail.
