KARACHI, April 1: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s counsel sought his acquittal in Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s murder case as there was no evidence against him and there was no probability of the trial resulting in conviction.
Arguing for a criminal revision application challenging the trial sessions court’s dismissal of the acquittal plea under Section 265-K of the criminal procedure code before Justice Syed Pir Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court, Advocate Shaukat Hussain Zubaidi said the accused sought his discharge even before the framing of charge.
The trial court, however, proceeded to frame the charge and examine witnesses. The prosecution submitted a list of 20 witnesses but dropped seven of them subsequently. No case to involve the accused in the murder conspiracy could be made out on the basis of the evidence adduced by the prosecution.
Dealing with the testimony of complainant Noor Mohammad, a confidante of the late Muratza Bhutto, the counsel said the FIR was registered seven weeks after the murder in pursuance of a high court order in a writ petition moved by Mrs Ghinwa Bhutto.
No conspiracy was alleged against the accused in the FIR and it was only in his oral testimony before the trial court that Noor Mohammad said that he was told by the late Murzata Bhutto that Asif Ali Zardari and Abdullah Shah (the then chief minister) were after his life and were conspiring to kill him, Advocate Zubaidi said.
Special public prosecutor M. Ilyas Khan argued that an acquittal plea did not justify reading, analysis and evaluation of evidence as if it were an appeal against conviction. The FIR was delayed because the police were not prepared to register it in the first instance. Complainant Noor Mohammad was not a witness on the charge of conspiracy. Fourteen of the 20 witnesses produced by the prosecution have been examined so far and only a few of the remaining witnesses have been dropped. Some of them were yet to be examined and it was for the trial court to evaluate their depositions, the prosecutor stated.
Mir Murtaza Bhutto, chairman of the PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) and a member of the Sindh Assembly, was fatally injured in police firing near his Clifton residence while returning from a party meeting in Surjani along with his associates on the evening of Sept 20, 1996. PPP (SB) vice-chairman Ashiq Husain Jatoi was among six others killed in the incident. The hearing will continue on Wednesday. Mr Zubaidi is being assisted by Advocates Shahadat Awan and Abu Bakr Zardari and Mr Ilyas Khan by Advocate Mohammad Farooq.
Ex-KBA chief’s plea
Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo, meanwhile, asked the City Courts police to submit a list of cases registered against former Karachi Bar Association president Javed Iftikhar Qazi. The accused has moved a petition for quashment of a case registered against him for rioting on September 29, 2007. His counsel, Syed Naqee Mirza, submitted that he was booked for participating in the lawyers’ campaign against the government and he might have been nominated in other cases. He requested the court to direct the police to produce copies of all FIRs registered against the former KBA president. Allowing the request, Justice Metlo adjourned further hearing to a date in office.
Plea disposed of
A division bench comprising Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi, meanwhile, disposed of a petition moved by a free-will-marriage couple through Advocate Shiraz Iqbal against registration of a kidnapping case against the husband at the instance of the wife’s brother in terms of statement submitted by Mirpurkhas district police officer.
The DPO’s statement said the couple belonged to Digri, Tando Jan Mohammad, Mirpurkhas. None of petitioner Sharifan’s relatives has approached the Digri police station for lodging a complaint against her or her husband. The police were not seeking their arrest in any case.
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