ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court hearing a plea for registration of a second FIR in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case ordered on Monday that a summons be pasted on the wall of former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s residence in Islamabad.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez said the move was aimed at informing the retired general of the case that would be taken up again after two weeks.
Mohammad Aslam Chaudhry, who filed the petition, is one of the injured witnesses of a gun-and-bomb attack on the former prime minister outside Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007. He served the slain PPP leader as protocol officer for 21 years.
The petitioner had challenged the rejection by the Lahore High Court of a plea for registration of the second FIR in the case.
He had also sought the initiation of criminal proceedings against Gen Musharraf and others for allegedly planning and executing the plot to assassinate Ms Bhutto and named as respondents former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, former law minister Babar Awan, then acting interior minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz, former director general of Intelligence Bureau Syed Ijaz Hussain Shah, former interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah and senior police officers of Rawalpindi.
Last week the government formally requested the Interpol to issue ‘red warrants’ for the arrest and extradition to Pakistan of Gen Musharraf, who is facing a case in an anti-terrorism court for not providing adequate security to Ms Bhutto. The ATC-III has already issued non-bailable warrants for Gen Musharraf and declared him a proclaimed offender.
On Monday, the apex court was informed that notices had been sent to Gen Musharraf on the address available, but the ‘server’s’ report suggested that he was living abroad.
The Punjab prosecutor general submitted a reply on behalf of the city police officer (CPO) and district police officer of Rawalpindi, opposing the registration of the second FIR on the grounds that a challan had already been submitted to the relevant court.
The court accepted a request of the Federal Investigation Agency to become a party in the case.
The court asked Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi, the counsel for Aslam Chaudhry, to furnish complete and correct address of Babar Awan in two days and ordered that on its receipt the process of issuing the notice be repeated.
The court said that since former CPO of Rawalpindi Saud Aziz, then SSP (operations) Yasin Farooq and then SP of Rawal Town Khurram Shahzad (respondents) belonged to the police force, the inspector general of Punjab police would ensure that notices were issued to them.
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