ISLAMABAD, May 6: A lawyer of former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf on Monday disassociated himself from the judges’ detention case.

Raja Rizwan Abbasi, who was engaged by the former military ruler to argue his case before the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad, withdrew his papers in the case.

Sources close to the lawyer claimed that the recent killing of special prosecutor Ch Zulfiqar Ali was behind the decision of advocate Abbasi who too was receiving threats from unknown persons.

It may be mentioned that Chaudhry Zulfiqar was the special prosecutor of the FIA in the Benazir Bhutto murder case since August 2009 and was murdered on May 3.

Advocate Abbasi, however, told Dawn that he withdrew his attorney for personal reasons.

“I have to take my wife abroad for her medical treatment and I will remain there for a couple of weeks and will not be available to pursue the case,” said advocate Abbasi.

According to him, he has informed the former military ruler and his legal team about his decision.

Ahmed Raza Kasuri, head of Musharraf’s legal team, when contacted said that after the disassociation of advocate Abbasi the former president would engage a new lawyer.

He claimed that despite some uncertainty after the death of special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali a number of lawyers wanted to join the his team.

Earlier, on April 20 advocate Qamar Afzal had appeared as Musharraf’s counsel in the case but later he excused from pursuing the case.

“Since I have little expertise in the criminal proceedings as I am an expert in the corporate matters therefore I had suggested Mr Musharraf to engage some other lawyer to argue the case in the trial court” said Mr Afzal.

On Monday, the ATC of Islamabad was scheduled to take up the bail after arrest petition of Gen Musharraf but since ATC Judge Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi was on medical leave, the hearing was adjourned till May 8.

Musharraf escape case

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday summoned the secretary interior Javed Iqbal to appear in the court on Tuesday in Gen Musharraf’s escape case and tell the court whether he had taken any action against the IG.

Justice Siddiqui had ordered the secretary interior to take action against inspector general of Islamabad police Bani Amin Khan as he tried to mislead the court in the case.

On April 30, deputy attorney general (DAG) Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri had informed the court that the interior secretary had initiated action against the Islamabad IG and sent the names of three senior police officials to the Establishment Division for his replacement.

He also said that secretary interior suggested that one of three federal secretaries -- Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, secretary education and training, Shahid Rasheed secretary information technology and Shahidullah Baig secretary production -- would be assigned to grill Bani Amin in the case.

On Monday neither the secretary interior nor any additional secretary appeared in the court but a section officer Ali Malik appeared only to tell the court that both secretary and additional secretary interior were busy in the Supreme Court.

The court put off the matter till Tuesday.

FIR against police officials

IHC Justice Siddiqui on Monday also directed the SSP Islamabad Yasin Farooq to register FIRs against eight police officials who in violation of his orders again occupied the residential apartments at G-6, Aabpara.

The court passed these orders after examining the report of an inspection team comprising IHC additional registrar Salamatullah, Estate Office chief inspector Anwar Baig and some other officials.

According to the report, the team on April 30 and May 2 inspected 55 apartments, out of them only 6 were duly allotted, 34 have been vacated, seven were still occupied while eight were re-occupied by the policemen after getting a stay order from the Supreme Court.

Justice Siddiqui observed that the apex court ordered to maintain status quo and did not authorise the illegal occupants to re-occupy the apartments.

He directed the SSP Islamabad to examine the matter and ascertain the role of the officials of the Estate Office so the court would initiate contempt of court proceedings against them.