Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: After Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the federal government on Friday too challenged the verdict of an anti-terrorism court in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, arguing that the two guilty policemen as well as the five men acquitted of all charges deserve capital punishment.

Last month, the ATC had announced the verdict in the murder case, acquitting five Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan suspects – Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Rashid Ahmed and Aitzaz Shah – and announcing 17-year imprisonment for two former police officials. The court had also declared Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf an absconder in the case.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed two petitions with the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench, challenging the decision. Assistant Attorney General Faisal Mehmood Raja in the petitions contended that the government was not satisfied with the verdict. The counsel for the agency also said that the ATC passed the verdict in a hurry without fulfilling legal requirements.

The first petition argues that the two convicted culprits were not punished under the terrorism charges which were part of the case. According to the petition, the two police officers – former City Police Officer Saood Aziz and former Superintendent Police Khurrum Shahzad – were sentenced under only two clauses each, whereas several other clauses, including terrorism, were also part of the case. The petition said that the 17-year imprisonment granted to both culprits was much less than what they deserved, demanding capital punishment for them.

The second petition states that the five accused who were set free had also confessed to their involvement before a magistrate, so they also deserved rigorous sentences. The five men were arrested within three months after the murder and they had confessed to their crime before a magistrate while weapons and other materials were also recovered from their possession, said the petition.

The FIA asked the LHC to overturn the ATC’s decision, issue orders to arrest the five men and award death sentences to them as well as the two former police officers.

The LHC accepted the petition, setting a date for the hearing of the case on October 2.

Assistant Attorney General Faisa Mahmood Raja will be representing the FIA in the court.

Earlier, PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari also challenged the ATC verdict of Aug 31 in LHC’s Rawalpindi bench, seeking death penalty for Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf and the two senior police officers.

In three appeals, Zardari challenged the acquittal of five TTP suspects, objected to the 17-year prison term awarded to Aziz and Shehzad, and asked why the ATC judge separated the case of Gen (r) Musharraf when 68 witnesses, including US lobbyist Mark Siegel, had testified in the matter a couple of years ago.

According to the appeal, “Pervez Musharraf, Saud Aziz and Khurram Shehzad cannot escape the gallows”.

A bench, comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi and Justice Habibullah Amir, summoned the entire record of the ATC proceedings and adjourned further hearings until Nov 27.

Published in Daily Times, September 30^th 2017.