KARACHI, Feb 4: An inquiry tribunal investigating the Oct 18 Karsaz blasts issued a non-bailable warrant for the arrest of Pakistan People’s Party leader Dr Zulfiqar Mirza on Monday after he refused to appear before the tribunal to record his testimony.

A three-member PPP team responsible for the overall security of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto upon her homecoming on Oct 18, comprising Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, Agha Siraj Durrani and Maj-Gen (retd) Ahsan Ahmed, were summoned for Jan 28 but only Mr Ahmed appeared before the tribunal. The tribunal had repeated summons for Dr Mirza and Mr Durrani for Feb 4 and warned them of adopting a ‘coercive process’ if they failed to appear before the tribunal.

However, when the proceeding began, process server sub-inspector Muhammad Ayub Bhutta of Kario Ghawar police station, Badin district, submitted his report before the tribunal head, retired Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad, that he had served a summon on Dr Mirza but he refused to comply with it.

Special prosecutor Arshad Lodhi submitted a copy of the process server’s report containing a handwritten note by Dr Mirza. “I am receiving this summon under protest because our leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto did not recognise this tribunal as free and fair. Therefore, we have decided not to appear before such a forum. We do our utmost efforts to stop that unfair treatment to the largest party of Pakistan,” wrote Dr Mirza, who was the security chief of Ms Bhutto and is working now in the same capacity with PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

The tribunal chief read out Dr Mirza’s note in the open proceeding and concluded that the PPP leader had no respect for the tribunal and was deliberately avoiding appearance. “Under the circumstances, let a non-bailable warrant and a proclamation for the attachment of his property be issued against him,” the tribunal ordered.

ASI Imran Khan of the Garhi Yasin police station, Shikarpur district, also appeared before the tribunal and deposed that the summons issued for Mr Durrani could not be served on him. He said he had contacted Mr Durrani and he told him that he would appear before the tribunal after the slain party chairperson’s Chehlum scheduled for Feb 7.

Dr Ghous summoned Mr Durrani to appear before the tribunal on Feb 12 for recording his statement. “Although he (Durrani) should have sent an application seeking time to appear, yet taking a lenient view it is ordered that let the process be repeated for the next date,” the tribunal told its registrar.

The tribunal was also informed that the summons, which had been issued for SSP Major (retd) Imtiaz Ahmed, the chief security officer nominated by the federal government for Ms Bhutto on her demand, returned un-served. The tribunal’s liaison officer SSP Niaz Khoso, however, told the tribunal that the previous night he had received a phone call from Maj (retd) Imtiaz that he was officially busy with a team of Scotland Yard. SSP Khoso said the witness requested that the matter about his testimony be fixed after Feb 20. The tribunal allowed his request and fixed Feb 25 for recording his statement.

Meanwhile, another witness, Dr Tariq Kamal Ayubi of the Civil Hospital Karachi, deposed before the tribunal that the hospital received a total of 61 injured and 36 dead people after the Oct 18 blasts. He said that 35 of the injured were admitted for further treatment and the others were discharged after they were given the first aid.

The tribunal adjourned its proceeding till Feb 9 for recording statements of PPP leader Naheed Khan and a medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.