ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Rawalpindi rejected the application of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) seeking day-to-day trial into the murder case of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

ATC Judge Shahid Rafique resuming the hearing of the case on Saturday turned down the FIA application filed under sub section 7 of section 19 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 according to which the ATC could hear the case on daily basis. The court said that due to its existing workload, it was not possible for the ATC judge to conduct the trial on regular basis at Adiala Jail.

Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, senior public prosecutor of FIA told Dawn that it would challenge the ATC order in the Lahore High Court (LHC) saying that Ms Bhutto was twice-elected prime minister and her case could not be decided even after four years of her assassination.

During the trial at Adiala Jail, FIA produced three prosecution witnesses for cross examination.

Naseer Tanoli, the defence counsel challenged the authenticity of recorded telephonic conservation in which Baitullah Mehsud, the then leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) congratulated the accused Rafaqat Hussain and Husnain Gul on carrying out deadly attack at Ms Bhutto.

He asked prosecution witness, Feroz Alam, Director PTCL how the record of the conversation had been obtained and whether the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or any other spy agency was allowed to tape the private telephone calls.

Advocate Tanoli also claimed that the forensic record of mobile phones of the accused produced by FIA expert, Noman Ashraf Bodla, was also not admissible because these phones were not owned by the accused.

He said FIA did not properly seal the mobile phones of the accused and expressed doubt that the investigators might have changed the original sets of the accused with the sets they produced in the court.

The court summoned seven prosecution witnesses for the next date of Jan 28 and adjourned the hearing.

Meanwhile, advocate Nayyab Gardezi requested the court to adjourn the Musharraf property seizure case as another counsel of Ms Musharraf, Fawad Chaudhry, had quit All Pakistan Muslim League and he was no more representing the spouse of former president in the case.

He said he needed some time to seek instructions from Ms Musharraf.