RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) appeals against the verdict of the anti-terrorism court in the Benazir Bhutto murder case was accepted for hearing on Thursday by the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi’s bench.
On Monday, while challenging the verdict of the lower court, the PPP had submitted three appeals, one challenging the order separating Musharraf’s trial from the case, the other is against the ‘lenient’ sentences against the police officers and the last against the suspected militants exonerated in the case, on behalf of PPP Co-Chairman and Benazir’s widower Asif Ali Zardari.
Hearing the case on Thursday, a divisional bench of the court accepted the appeals and adjourned the hearing until November 27.
On August 31, the court hearing the former prime minister’s murder case for over 10 years cleared five accused in the case, convicted two former police officials and declared former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf a proclaimed offender.
CONVICTED POLICE OFFICIALS CHALLENGE THE VERDICT:
The two senior police officers who were sentenced to 17 years in prison for security lapses that led to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007, have also challenged the judgement against them in the Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court (LHC).
The appeals filed by the police officers’ counsels had urged the high court to release the convicts after overturning the sentences handed to them.
The applications state that the police officers had provided adequate security at Liaquat Bagh, the venue of the rally addressed by Bhutto. They said that the two officers have been made “scapegoats” even though the prosecution did not have any solid evidence against them.
AIG Saud Aziz had been accused of removing SP Ashfaq Anwar from Liaquat Bagh, leaving Bhutto at the mercy of the attackers. He was also accused of not ordering an autopsy of her body.
SSP Khurram Shehzad was charged with washing the crime scene and destroying potential evidence that may have led investigators to the terrorists.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack after an election rally in Liaquat Bagh on Dec 27, 2007. The then government of Pervez Musharraf had blamed TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud for the killing but Mehsud had denied any involvement in the murder.
