The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC-I) on Tuesday reserved its judgement over retrial of Benazir Bhutto murder case after arrest of former president Pervez Musharraf.
The former president, who was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on April 26, is on bail against two surety bonds of Rs 1 million each in the assassination case of slain PPP chairwoman Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf has exemption from court appearance due to security concerns.
FIA Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar and PPP lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa pleaded before ATC Judge Habibur Rehman to advance the case proceedings without any further delay as its retrial would be tantamount to wastage of time.
Azhar said around 23 witnesses have so far recorded their statements before the court and they could be summoned for cross-questioning again but retrial of the case would be wastage of court’s time, money and beneficial for accused.
Khosa said the PPP was not in the favour of retrial of the case, which was lingering on for the last five years.
He said the proceedings should be advanced for early disposal of the case.
Ilyas Siddique, counsel for Musharraf, contended that according to law there should be retrial of the case after arrest of Musharraf so that witnesses’ statements could be recorded in the presence all accused.
Malik Rafiq, counsel for former police officials, including Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad, said it was a known practice that whenever main accused is arrested in any case, retrial is initiated.
He held the previous government of PPP responsible for inordinate delay in trial of the high-profile case, saying that delaying tactics were used for unknown reasons.
On completion of arguments, the judge reserved the verdict over retrial of the case and adjourned the hearing until October 1.
Meanwhile, the ATC also admitted a petition filed by the Social Justice Party seeking immunity for Musharraf in Benazir Bhutto murder case under Article 248 of the constitution.
It is also pleaded that Musharraf could not be included in investigation or declared accused in the case, as at the time of BB’s assassination, he was the president.
Admitting the plea, the ATC issued notices to counsels for all the parties concerned to appear before it on October 1.
