KARACHI, March 24: An anti-terrorism court had to put off the hearing of a bomb blast case on Monday because there was no courtroom available inside the Central Prison, Karachi, to conduct the proceedings.

The only courtroom inside the jail was already occupied by the ATC-1 judge, who proceeded with the Maulana Saleem Qadri murder case.

Judge Feroz Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2, who waited till 1pm to have the courtroom vacant, finally fixed Wednesday for the next hearing of the bomb blast case.

Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the ATC-1 recorded the statements of two prosecution witnesses.

This was not the first time when the judge, special public prosecutor, defence counsel and prosecution witnesses were present but proceedings of the bomb blast case could not be held due to non-availability of a courtroom.

The five ATCs have been assigned the jail trial of more than 40 sectarian and terrorism cases, including the US consulate carbomb and Frenchmen killing cases, but there are only two courtrooms, one inside the main prison building and the other inside the Juvenile Jail, the latter is on the premises of the Central Prison.

At present the courtroom inside the Central Prison is used by the ATCs 1 and 2, and the room inside the Juvenile Jail is shared by the ATCs 4 and 5 on alternate days.

Judge Bhatti had earlier recorded the statement of Inspector Hanif Qadri in a small room inside the jail because of non-availability of a courtroom. He had reserved the cross-examination of the prosecution witness by defence counsel for Monday.

Sabir Waseem, a worker of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, has been charged with launching an anti-tank rocket (BM-107) on November 23, 2001 that had pierced through the wall of Commerce College on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road.

It was alleged that accused Waseem, along with his absconding accomplice, Asif Ramzi, fired the rocket from near the college to target Americans staying on the second and third floors of Sheraton Hotel.

According to the prosecution, the two Aalmi men, carrying the rocket and its locally-made launcher in a kit bag, reached near the hotel on a motorcycle around 9:30pm. The two positioned the launcher on the pushcart of a junk vendor. While accused Waseem was still trying to position the launcher to the hotel, the rocket exploded due to short-circuit and hit the wall of Commerce College. It landed in a classroom making an eight-inch hole in the wall.

Special public prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum is representing the state in the case.

MURDER CASE: Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the ATC-1 will resume the hearing of the Salim Qadri murder case against a worker of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, Mohammed Faisal, on Tuesday.