Hearing a plea seeking orders for registration of a second first information report (FIR) against former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf and 12 others in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered that a notice be pasted outside Musharraf’s home to inform him about the case pending before the Supreme Court.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez directed the registrar’s office to ensure process of delivery of notices to all respondents in the case. During the hearing, the chief justice noted that no one was taking the case seriously, as most of the respondents in the case did not turn up. The court was informed that senior advocate Anwar Mansoor would represent Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who is also one of respondents in the petition. The court was informed that a notice could not be sent to the former president because he was currently residing abroad and could not be sent to former law minister Babar Awan because he did not have a permanent office.
The court asked the attorney general to get Awan’s complete address and serve him notice within two days.
The court also directed Punjab Inspector General Haji Habibur Rehman to ensure service of notices upon Punjab police officers, who were respondents in the case. However, in their written replies submitted through the Punjab prosecutor general before the court, former Rawalpindi city police chief Saud Aziz and former Rawalpindi City SP Khurram Shehzad, maintained that there was no need of registration of a second FIR as the challans of the first FIR had already been submitted and the case was under adjudication before the trial court.
Besides, they said the petitioner had no locus standi to file such a plea, as neither he was a legal heir of Benazir Bhutto nor an affected party.
The court also accepted the Federal Investigative Agency’s (FIA) application seeking to be a respondent in the case and adjourned the case for two weeks. Rashid A Rizvi appeared for the petitioner. According to the registrar’s office report submitted before the court, the respondents, who had not been served notices included Musharraf, Aziz, then Rawalpindi CPO Yasin Farooq, then Rawalpindi SSP (Operation) Khuram Shahzad, then Rawal Town SP and Babar Awan.
The application seeking registration of second FIR against 12 respondents was filed by Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam, former protocol officer of Benazir Bhutto.
