KARACHI, Sept 19: The district and sessions judge, Central, Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, on Friday dismissed the acquittal application of Asif Ali Zardari in the Justice Nizam murder case after it was withdrawn by the defence counsel.
The application for the acquittal of Mr Zardari was moved by his counsel, Azizullah Shaikh, under Section 249-A of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The judge, who is holding the trial inside the Central Prison under a notification, fixed Oct 3 for the next hearing and ordered the prosecution to supply the copies of witnesses’ statements to the defence counsel.
Justice Nizam Ahmed of Sindh High Court and his son Nadim Ahmed, a lawyer, were shot dead in an attack on June 10, 1996 near their residence at PECH Society. The Ferozabad police had registered the case initially against unknown assailants on the complainant of Group Captain (Retd) Sikandar, brother-in-law of Justice Nizam Ahmed.
Javed Akhtar Pirzada, Babar Sindhu and Bilal Shaikh are the co-accused in the case.
The judge also rejected the application of one of the investigation officers for discharging accused Bilal Shaikh from the case under section 169 of the Cr.P.C as special public prosecutor, Maula Bux Bhatti, did not support the IO’s application.
LASHKAR MEN: The chief of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and his three alleged associates were indicted on Thursday in a sectarian murder case by an anti-terrorism court.
LJ chief Akram Lahori, Ataullah, Mohammed Azam and Malik Tassaduq, however, denied the charges and pleaded “not guilty”, when Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 formally arraigned them in the case.
The were charged with the killing of Seth Ramzan Ali, owner of Pak-Iranian Tea Company, at his outlet in Saddar on Feb 11 last year. Ehsan Ali, an employ at the tea company, and Mohammed Firdous, a customer, were also injured in the attack. The attackers also hurled an explosive devise, which destroyed the victim’s shop.
The judge put of the hearing till Sept 22 and ordered the Special Public Prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, to produce the prosecution witnesses on the next date.
SHIFTED: Asif Ali Zardari was flown back to Lahore on Friday evening after his overnight stay in Karachi during which he appeared in Justice Nizam murder case trial being held inside the Central Jail Karachi. He was brought to Karachi Thursday evening.
Talking to newsmen informally after proceedings of the trial, Mr Zardari claimed that merger of various factions of the ‘Establishment-backed’ Muslim League was an indication that Gen Musharraf was preparing ground for fresh elections in the wake of the present government’s failure.
He said that attempts to prop up an official People’s Party would not succeed though the government would try to wean away some of the weak links.
He said that Benazir Bhutto, chairperson of PPP, had anticipated this kind of a situation and had thus directed party workers to organize themselves at all levels to challenge the regime.
He predicted fresh polls next year and said that Benazir Bhutto would be in Pakistan to lead the party’s election campaign.