ISLAMABAD, March 10: Families of four persons killed in the terrorist attack of Dec 27, 2007 in which former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was also died approached the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Rawalpindi to become a party in the case.ATC Judge Shahid Rafique resumed hearing of the case on Saturday. The relatives of four deceased, Jamil Ahmed, Mohammad Taj, Asad Ali and Raja Amin, submitted their applications in the court through their lawyers.

During the hearing, the prosecution requested the court to delete some entries of the record regarding its witness Constable Haider Ali after he had recorded his statement in the court and the defence counsels of the accused asked the prosecutors to provide the copies of the statement.

According to the defence counsels, Constable Ali collected the remains of the deceased persons for DNA test but in the police entries he went for DNA test on Jan 21, 2008 whereas in his statement he contended that he went for the purpose on Jan 16.

Advocate Rao Abdul Rahim told Dawn that the four lawyers were introduced at a time when the case was at the final stages. He said he could not understand the rationale that they wanted to become a party in the case after more than four years of the commencement of trial proceedings.

“The legal heirs of former prime minister Bhutto have not engaged any private lawyer and are relying on FIA prosecutors but the families of other deceased have hired the private lawyers, which is beyond my understandings,” he added.

He claimed the private lawyers would also be paid by the federal government and the influential persons within the government engaged their blue eyed boys only to give them some monetary benefits.

Meanwhile, the same court also took up the matter regarding seizer of the property of the former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf.

Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) senior public prosecutor pointed out that the counsel for former first lady Sehba Musharraf was still absent and the issue of her notarised and councelarised attorney had also not yet been resolved.

The counsel for Habib Bank Limited (HBL) Barrister Usman Rashid told the court that agreement of a bank account titled “Pervez Musharraf Foundation” was signed in London and, therefore, the court could not attach the same.Prosecutor Zulfiqar Ali, however, said the HBL was operating in Pakistan in accordance with the law of land and under the court directions it could not defreeze Musharraf’s accounts. He pointed out that bank management was not an aggrieved party therefore, it could not claim any remedy as well.