KARACHI, Nov 22: An anti-terrorism court is due to resume the hearing of President General Pervez Musharraf’s 2002 murder conspiracy case on Friday with the scheduled testimony of the security officer who was responsible for the president’s security arrangements on that particular day. However, the security officer in question was murdered last month.
An interesting situation is likely to arise when the prosecution officer submits the report to the court stating that the former police officer and potentially important witness, SSP Aziz-ur-Rahman, who was notified to issue his statement in the case, is no more.
“The defence had requested for the statement of the police officer, who was in charge of the security on the day of the incident,” said Niamat Randhawa, Special Public Prosecutor. “The late officer had never been asked before to present himself before the court, so he was not a witness in the case as such.”
He said the prosecution did not argue for his statement before and it was the defence which believed that it was necessary to record Mr Rahman’s account.
Six alleged militants of Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, accused of hatching a conspiracy to kill Gen Musharraf in 2002, in the last hearing a couple of days ago requested the court to summon the police officer responsible for the security arrangements.
Accused Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Hanif alias Ayub, Mohammad Ashraf, Waseem Akhtar, Mohammad Jamil and Arsalan alias Sharib have been facing the retrial of the case inside the Central Prison Karachi.
Mr Randhawa said that since the murder of the former SSP was not linked with the conspiracy case, the prosecution did not consider it part of the investigation. “His murder was a totally different case, so it was not taken so seriously while prosecuting President Musharraf’s murder conspiracy case,” he added.
Mr Rahman was gunned down along with his armed guard by unknown assailants in the New Karachi Industrial Area last month. His daylight murder was a grim reminder of the 1997 incident in which his two sons, one of whom was a police officer, were murdered in Al-Falah Society.
He was serving as a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) when his sons Kashif Aziz and Rashid Aziz were brutally murdered as they returned home after offering Friday prayers in an area mosque near the Shamsi Housing Society in Al-Falah.
The late police officer’s son, DSP Arif Aziz, said that his father had never been called to record a statement in any court in his life during the hearing of President Musharraf’s murder conspiracy case.
“To the best of my knowledge we had not received any correspondence from the court for the statement”, he said. “He was SSP at that time of the incident but was never asked to present himself before any court in that particular case”.
Last month’s attack on Mr Rahman also injured his son Tariq Aziz, a sub-inspector, who was with his father in the vehicle.