RAWALPINDI: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday accepted petitions challenging detention of those acquitted in Benazir murder case for regular hearing.
A division bench of LHC Rawalpindi bench comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi was hearing the petitions filed by relatives of Sher Zaman, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat Hussain acquitted in Benazir murder case against their detention after acquittal in the Benazir murder case.
After hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioners’ counsel, the court accepted the petition for regular hearing and issued notices to the Rawalpindi’s deputy commissioner.
Advocate Malik Jawad Khalid appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioners.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the anti-terrorism court had acquitted his clients and ordered their release. But after acquittal in the case, the detention of his clients had no legal justification.
He pleaded the court to declare the decision to keep his clients in detention as illegal.
The court ,while accepting the petitions, for regular hearing adjourned further hearing till October 10.
Earlier, while announcing the verdict in Benazir Bhutto murder case, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had sentenced two police officers to 17 years imprisonment for being “negligent” and had acquitted the five suspects belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—who were indicted in 2008. The court had also declared then-president Pervez Musharraf an absconder in the case.
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.
