Just two days after President Asif Ali Zardari had criticised the judiciary, directly naming Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and questioned what the Supreme Court had done in the assassination case of Benazir Bhutto pending before it, the CJP on Thursday fixed for January 4 the hearing of a plea seeking registration of a second first information report (FIR) against former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf and others in the Benazir murder case.
Responding to the president’s concerns, the CJP constituted a five-member special bench to hear the plea filed by Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam, former protocol officer for Bhutto, for registration of a second FIR in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case against Musharraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and 12 others. On August 1, the court had admitted the plea, filed against the June 23 decision of the Lahore High Court, for regular hearing and sought reports from the United Nations, Scotland Yard, Police Inspector General Mian Majeed, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the attorney general on the assassination and fixed its next hearing for September 21. It was, however, de-listed on September 21 because of the hearing of the 7th Wage Board Award and other cases. On the last hearing, the CJP had questioned whether the government had implemented the recommendations of Scotland Yard and the UN, as they had investigated the case.
The court had also hinted at the constitution of a larger bench in the case after receiving the UN, Scotland Yard and police reports in the case. On June 23, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court had dismissed Aslam’s plea, in which he had requested the court to order placement of Babar Awan and Rehman Malik on the Exit Control List (ECL).
