LAHORE, Jan 21: An anti-terrorism court dismissed on Tuesday an application of the prosecution, seeking three months adjournment of a case against Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja and ordered the production of the two on January 28.

The court further directed the prosecution to file the complete chargesheet against the accused and deliver the copies of the statements of prosecution witnesses to them on the next hearing.

The prosecution had sought three months adjournment on the grounds that both the accused had been detained under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952 and could not be produced before the court for security reasons.

Rejecting the application, the court observed that there was no provision in the Security of Pakistan Act 1952, placing a bar on the production of the accused before a trial court. The accused had been produced before the court twice and no law and order situation arose.

The court also disagreed with contention of the prosecution that it had the jurisdiction to adjourn the case for an indefinite period under Section 344 of CrPC.

Earlier, defence counsel Pervaiz Inayat Malik refuted the application saying the grounds taken for three months’ adjournment had no recognition in the eyes of law.

He argued that the proceedings under the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 could not be adjourned for more than two working days.

According to the counsel, the objective of the ATA was to provide speedy trial and the application was in conflict with the preamble of the ATA.

He argued that prosecution’s fear that a law and order situation would arise following the production of accused, had exposed the incompetence of the authorities concerned.

The counsel alleged that the prosecution was intentionally avoiding to produce the accused before the court since it had no evidence against them.

It was further argued that the ATA had been given overriding powers over all other laws, including the CrPC. Therefore, the court could not adjourn the trial under Section 344 of CrPC.

In this case Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja had been accused of having opened indiscriminate fire on the police party and providing shelter to two alleged activists of Al Qaeda at their residence.

The prosecution filed an incomplete chargesheet before the court earlier this month. The court had refused to proceed further without the production of the accused before it.