KARACHI Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court quashed on Tuesday proceedings against Sindh National Front chairman Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto in a criminal case.

Mr Bhutto was being tried by a magistrate for instigating an attack on the office of a Sindhi daily in Karachi by his supporters to 'teach it a lesson' for not publishing an article written by him to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in January this year.

He moved a criminal miscellaneous application or quashing of the proceedings as he had been booked for political victimisation.

Contesting the application, Prosecutor-General Shahadat Awan argued that there was enough evidence to implicate Mr Bhutto.

The first information report had been lodged by a journalist and not by police. The applicant should have approached the trial court to prove his innocence instead of moving the high court straightaway.

The quashing of the proceedings would have an adverse affect on the prosecution case against nine other accused, who raided a newspaper office, the prosecutor-general said.

Advocate Abid S. Zuberi, the applicant's counsel, maintained that the prosecution had failed to make out a case against Mr Bhutto. There was no evidence to connect him with the commission of the alleged offence.

The trial was an abuse of the process of law and the accused had a right to invoke the inherent powers of the high court insofar as the proceedings related to him.