KARACHI, Nov 8: An additional district and sessions judge, south, directed on Saturday a courier company to submit a confirmation report till Nov 18 regarding the delivery of a court order to the interior ministry in a case pertaining to an attempt on the life of Asif Ali Zardari in 1999.

Former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother, Mujibur Rehman Khan, former inspector-general of police Rana Maqbool, former deputy inspector-general of police Farooq Amin Qureshi and former superintendent of the central prison Najaf Mirza are the accused in the case.

Earlier, the court had declared all the accused as proclaimed offenders, for the police failed a number of times to execute the non-bailable arrest warrants of the accused. On Sept 30, the court directed the federal interior ministry to issue red warrants for the arrest of four accused residing abroad and to execute the warrants through the Interpol, and submit a compliance report in court. However, the ministry failed to submit the report till Oct 25. It was only on the request of the public prosecutor that the court granted 14 more days to the ministry for submission of the compliance report.

But the interior ministry was again unsuccessful in submitting the compliance report on Saturday when the case came up for hearing. Abdul Samad Awan, who is assisting the prosecution, requested the court to issue a show-cause notice to the interior secretary since the ministry had repeatedly failed to submit the report.

Opposing the plea, public prosecutor Abdul Maharoof argued that the court’s directions for the interior ministry were issued on Sept 30 but the orders were dispatched through a courier company on Oct 11.

The delivery report was yet to be received, he said, adding that they were not sure whether the court order was delivered to the ministry or not.

Judge Abdul Naeem Memon, after hearing the arguments, issued directions for the courier company to submit a confirmation report on Nov 18.

The accused are charged with obtaining an ‘unlawful’ physical custody of Asif Ali Zardari from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and 16, 1999 and taking him to the CIA Centre where they allegedly tortured and forced him to record incriminatory statements.

According to the prosecution, Mr Zardari suffered injuries to his tongue and other parts of his body due to the torture while the police refused to register a case against the police officials, attributing the incident to Mr Zardari’s bid to commit suicide.

It was only after an inquiry conducted by a district and sessions judge established that the injuries were not self-inflicted that a case was registered at the Artillery Maidan police station in February 2005. The trial court, however, disposed of the case and acquitted all the accused in June 2006.

Asif Zardari had moved a revision application in the Sindh High Court to challenge the trial court’s order.

Meanwhile, the same court could not hold proceedings of a gang-rape case for want of time. The hearing of Kainat Soomro case was adjourned till Nov 22.

The prosecution said that the 13-year-old girl was gang-raped by three men in Mehar village of Dadu after being kidnapped from her home last year. Police arrested Shaban Sheikh, Sheikh Ashan and Roshan Aleem for their alleged involvement in the case.