LAHORE, March 25: The liaison officer for the case against Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and his brother was replaced by the court on Tuesday, and issued a show-cause notice for being in contempt of the court order regarding his duty to ensure presence of prosecution witnesses in the courtroom.

The anti-terrorism court further directed the prosecution to furnish it with the entire case property along with the supporting material by March 28, and summoned all the prosecution witnesses afresh on the next hearing.

The court, which was supposed to indict both Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja for harbouring Al Qaeda activists, expressed displeasure at the absence of Liaison Officer SHO Manawan Ibrar Shah. The court also took serious notice of the fact that the prosecutor, Rana Bakhtiar, did not have the entire case property and the incriminating evidence against the two Khwajas in his possession.

“The prosecution has not prepared for today’s proceedings since the prosecution witnesses and the liaison officer are not present. A short adjournment is being allowed for the appearance of the liaison officer and completion of prosecution record,” observed the court while rejecting the prosecution’s application for grant of a long adjournment.

When the proceedings were resumed after an hour, both the liaison officer, Ibrar Shah, and Manawan ASP Imran Mahmood appeared in the court. “From today, ASP Imran would officiate as the liaison officer in place of SHO Ibrar Shah, and would be responsible for serving summons on prosecution witnesses and ensuring their presence in the court besides any other relevant task assigned by the court,” the judge ordered.

SHO Ibrar was issued a show-cause notice under Section 37 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The matter would be taken up on the next hearing.

The prosecutor, however, again expressed his inability to furnish the complete case property and bring all the prosecution witnesses to the court. The court observed that all the incriminating evidence against the two accused should be brought on judicial record by the next hearing.

Defence counsel Pervez Inayat Malik furnished the court with the Lahore High Court judgment on a petition of the accused against their trial in jail. The court had sought a copy of the judgment to confirm as to whether the LHC had made the observation that allowing the general public and journalists to attend the case proceedings was a prerogative of the trial court.

The judge observed that he would decide Mr Malik’s application for an open trial on March 28, after going through the LHC judgment and examining the prosecution evidence.

Earlier, Pervez Inayat Malik boycotted the proceedings to protest against the alleged humiliation of his two associates, who had allegedly been stopped from entering the premises by the security staff.

On being apprised of the situation by the court staff, the judge summoned the defence counsel who narrated the whole incident.