RAWALPINDI: The trial of the accused persons, including former president Pervez Musharraf, in the Benazir Bhutto murder case started afresh for the third time in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) here on Tuesday.

Under the Criminal Procedure Code, whenever a person is arrested in a case the trial of all those already in custody is carried out afresh.

Ms Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh on December 27, 2007. About 22 other people were also killed in the terrorist attack.

Initially, five persons - Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid - were put on trial in November 2008.

Three years later, the prosecution nominated the then city police officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Saud Aziz and SP Khurram Shehzad in the case and the court scrapped the previous proceedings and started fresh trial of the accused persons.

After the arrest of Gen Musharraf in the murder case in April 2013, the prosecution prepared a fresh challan and submitted it to the ATC in July.

ATC Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman on August 20 indicted Gen Musharraf and all the other accused persons again and the trial of the six-year-old murder case started afresh.

On Tuesday, the court had summoned four doctors who conducted the postmortem on the bodies of the 22 persons who were killed in the terrorist attack.

The doctors, who were the prosecution witnesses, however, did not appear before the court citing different reasons. Subsequently, the judge had to record the statement of a constable, Kashif Bashir, the only witness present in the court.

Malik Jawwad Khalid, the counsel for two of the accused persons - Rafaqat and Husnain - later told Dawn that it was the responsibility of the prosecution agency, the FIA, to ensure the attendance of the accused in the court.

“The defence counsel were present to examine the four doctors but none of them was brought to the court by the prosecution,” he said.

“My clients have been behind bars for the last six years. The court might have acquitted them had the trial concluded on time,” he contended.

The counsel blamed the prosecution for the years’ long delay in the conclusion of the trial, saying the prosecution had time to time enhanced the number of accused persons.

Initially, there were only three accused nominated in the case but later the investigation agency arrested two more persons and the court started the trial.

Later, the police officers and now the former president were also implicated and the court has to commence the proceedings afresh.

“Had the prosecution not enhanced the number of the accused from time to time the trial of the murder case would have been completed much earlier,” he added.

FIA special prosecutor Chaudhry Mohammad Azhar, on the other hand, attributed the delay to the defence counsel.

He said the defence counsel did not attend the proceedings on a regular basis and because of their attitude the matter had been lingering on for six years.

“If the situation persists, I don’t think the case will be concluded even in the next few years” said Azhar.

The prosecution has made sincere efforts to expedite the trial, he explained. “We filed a number of petitions for the day-to-day trial of the accused persons and even obtained an order from Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench for the early disposal of the murder case.

“However, all our efforts went in vain because the defence counsel could not attend the proceedings due to their engagements.”