LAHORE, Oct 2: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday requested the Lahore High Court to summon him to Pakistan for facing the proceedings of a criminal case pending against him and six police officials in an anti-terrorism court.
Shahbaz Sharif was declared a proclaimed offender by an Anti-Terrorism Court on July 17 this year following his persistent absence from the proceedings of a case of killing five youth in a staged police encounter.
The former chief minister of the Punjab had requested the ATC to recall its orders, declaring him a proclaimed offender. But the ATC had disallowed his plea for summoning him to Pakistan from the US.
The petition is likely to be taken up for hearing next week.
Shahbaz Sharif’s counsel Ijaz Hussain Batalvi and Manzoor Ahmad Malik pleaded the court to direct the federal government to refrain from hindering their client’s appearance in the trial court.
“The orders declaring him a proclaimed offender be set aside and the trial court be directed to summon him from the US in accordance with the relevant provisions of law”.
The counsel claimed that their client, who had been in the US for medical treatment, was forced to leave Pakistan during December 2000. He was not being allowed to return to the country for some unknown reasons. He was not in the country at the time of the registration of the case and the subsequent issuance of warrants for his arrest and the court orders declaring him a proclaimed offender.
They argued that Shahbaz Sharif read the report in newspapers about the initiation of trial against him. “He never avoided the service of the court summons and the subsequent issuance of warrants. He is ready to face the trial as he believes that he is absolutely innocent in this case,” the counsel contended.
They challenged the orders of the ATC on the grounds that no person could be declared a proclaimed offender unless there was an evidence on the record that he had deliberately concealed himself from the operation of law. Shahbaz Sharif neither absconded from the country nor even received the court summons abroad.
The process server entrusted with the responsibility of serving the court summons and the warrants on him had stated categorically that Shahbaz Sharif was not present in the country, he had moved to Saudi Arabia and the summons could not served on him.
No address of Shahbaz Sharif was mentioned in the process server’s report. Instead, only “former provincial chief minister” had been written in the column of address on the court summons. This lacuna had rendered the entire proclamation process defective on the basis of which no one could be declared a proclaimed offender.
The warrants for the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif could be executed outside the geographical limits of Pakistan as prescribed in Section 93-B of the Cr PC. But the ATC opted to declare him a proclaimed offender which was not permissible under the prevalent law, the counsel claimed.
They argued that the ATC could cancel the perpetual warrants for the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif, under Section 75(2) of the Cr PC, following the issuance of the proclamation orders. Such cancellation would not affect the proceedings at all.
Former DSP Umar Virk, Sub-Inspector Lala Roshan, ASIs Zulfiqar Ahmad, Muhammad Manzoor, Shamshad Ahmad, former SHO Babar Ashraf Ansari (declared proclaimed offender) are the other accused in the case.
The accused police officials had shot dead Salahuddin, Waseem, Haider, Rauf, Wakeel in a staged encounter in Sabzazar area on April 27, 1998.
The FIR lodged on the orders of the Lahore High Court stated that this encounter was staged on the orders of the then chief minister of the Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif.
The trial court had refused to consider a report submitted before it last year in which senior police officials, supervising the investigation of the case had exonerated Shahbaz Sharif from the case. The court had discarded the report on the grounds that it had no legal recognition and a formal charegsheet under Section 173 of the Cr PC should be submitted.