KARACHI, Aug 12: Karachi East District and Session Judge Sain Ali Dino Matilo on Tuesday adjourned hearing of Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case against former senator Asif Ali Zardari and others after completing cross-examination of a prosecution witness by the defence counsels.

The judge, who is conducting the trial in the central jail, fixed Aug 19 for the next hearing by consent of both the sides.

The defence counsels completed cross-examination of the witness, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Medico-Legal Officer Dr Ismail Rajpur.

The MLO, in his statement, had stated that he treated three injured persons — Ismail Khusi Mohammad, Ayaz and Asfar Ali — official guards of Mr Bhutto, and conducted postmortem of unknown persons brought by the Clifton police.

He had stated that he was a member of the team that conducted postmortem of Mr Bhutto.

During cross-examination, he stated that it was correct to suggest that Mr Bhutto’s life could have been saved if he was taken to the hospital without delay.

He said that during the autopsy, Dr Ayaz examined the wounds on Mr Bhutto’s body and he took notes of his comments.

He stated: “I reported that bleeding from mouth was present and by this it was meant that blood was present in the mouth.”

The court observed that another case against Mr Zardari was fixed on Sept 5 and ruled that the matter would be taken up during the next hearing.

Azizullah K. Sheikh, Ashraf Kazi, Khawaja Naveed, Khalid Hameed and Adam Jaffery advocates represented the accused and Special Public Prosecutor Ilyas Khan appeared for the state.—PPI