An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday adjourned the hearing of Benazir Bhutto assassination case till November 21 after the defence lawyers requested the court for provision of relevant record of the case.
The hearing of the case held in the court of Shahid Rafique, where the prosecution brought four witnesses for recording of their statements. The judge directed the prosecution to supply statements of the prosecution witnesses to the defence counsels.
Khurram Mehmood Qureshi, counsel of an accused Sher Zaman submitted an application before the court for amending the charges against his client.
He said his client was facing allegation of having knowledge of the conspiracy of assassination but the court indicted him under sections 302, 109, 435 and 436 of Pakistan Penal Code as well as Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for killing, hatching plot to kill Benazir Bhutto and assisting the perpetrators, using illegal explosive material.
Rao Abdul Rahim, representing Rasheed Ahmed, also made a similar written request. Another counsel, Malik Jawwad Khalid, requested the court for supply of challans and investigation reports of the Joint Investigation Team, police and FIA along with other related documents.
Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, the FIA prosecutor, informed the court that the relevant record had already been handed over to the defence counsels.
He filed a third application for conducting the trial on daily basis and cited Sub Section 7 of Section 19 of ATA 1997 as an argument.
