KARACHI, Aug 19: The last arrested accused in the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case, a head constable, was granted bail on Monday by the trial court.

The district and sessions judge, East, Sain Ali Dino Matilo, gave HC Muslim Shah bail in the sum of Rs100,000.

The case, being tried on the premises of the Central Prison, Karachi, was transferred to the district and session judge, East, in August last year after Judge Yasmin Abbasi of the Small Causes Court had refused to try the case some six months before its transfer due to “non-cooperation of the prosecution and defence lawyers.”

Mir Murtaza Bhutto, son of the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the younger brother of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed along with six others, including his close aide, Ashiq Jatoi, in September 1996 some 100 meters from his residence in Clifton by police in an alleged shootout.

Asif Ali Zardari, husband of Benazir Bhutto, former DIG Karachi Shoaib Suddle, the then senior superintendent of police South, Wajid Durrani, the then chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Masood Sharif, the then SP Saddar, Shahid Hiyat, the then ASP Darkhshan, Rai Mohammed Tahir, the then SHO Garden police station, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, the then SHO of Napier PS, Agha Mohammed Jameel, ASI Abdul Basit, head constables Muslim Shah and Faisal Hafeez, and constables Zafar Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Ghulam Mustafa, Ahmed Khan, Raja Hameed, Gulzar Khan, Zakir Mehmood and Ghulam Shabbir were the arrested accused in the case.

All of them have been granted bail.

The trial of Mir Murtaza Bhutto case has come to a halt since the deposition of the 17th out of a total 223 prosecution witnesses due to non-production of the prime accused, Asif Ali Zardari, in the court.

The court had recorded the statement of Ghulam Mustafa, a worker of Mir Murtaza’s party and eyewitness in the case, in July 2000. The PW is yet to be cross-examined by defence counsel.

Asif Zardari, who was granted bail in the case in December last year, has not been produced in the court despite repeated notices to the jail authorities and the Sindh home department for his production.

The husband of the former prime minister, facing trial in over 13 cases, was arrested on November 5, 1996 at the Punjab Governor’s House initially under the Maintenance of Public Order, following the dismissal of the Benazir government by then president Mohammed Farooq Leghari.

SENTENCED: The district and sessions judge, South, Agha Rafique Ahmed Khan, sentenced two men to five years in jail with fine of Rs20,000 each for looting and injuring a bakery-owner.

Shahid Ali and Muslim Nabi had stabbed Nazim Ali on Nov 18 last year in the police limits of Kalri. The convicts would have to undergo an additional three months’ imprisonment if they failed to pay the fine.