ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday sought reply from former president Pervez Musharraf in a petition seeking registration of FIR against him and former Intelligence Bureau director-general Ejaz Shah in connection with July 2007 district courts blast.

The blast shook the venue of a reception held for the then deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in which 14 PPP workers were killed.

The law enforcement agencies after registering the FIR of the incident arrested six suspects.

The suspects were, however, acquitted by Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Rawalpindi in June 2010 for want of evidence.

The same year, Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam, former protocol officer of Benazir Bhutto filed a petition before the additional sessions judge of Islamabad for registration of a second FIR of the blast against Gen Musharraf and Ejaz Shah.

The petition was, however, dismissed.

Aslam then moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the case was pending in the court.

On Thursday, Aslam’s counsel adopted before IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui that when the petition was filed Gen Musharraf was abroad and for this reason notice could not be served on him.

He said since Musharraf had arrived in the country and currently is in judicial custody at his farmhouse sub-jail therefore the court could summon him in this matter.

The court after hearing the arguments issued notice to Gen Musharraf and adjourned the matter till a date to be fixed by the registrar office.

According to the petition, Aslam filed two separate petition for registration of FIR before the additional sessions judge in 2007 and 2010 respectively but to no avail.

He alleged that Gen Musharraf and former DG IB Shah were the main perpetrators of the incident as they in connivance with then chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi wanted to eliminate chief justice during the restoration of judges movement.

Syed Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, counsel for Pervaiz Elahi and Ejaz Shah on the other hand told Dawn that Elahi and Shah had nothing to do with the incident.

He said the police had arrested some suspects and tried them in the ATC and they had been acquitted some three years ago.

“Neither any relative of the victim nor any injured ever raised doubt over the investigation or ever demanded re-investigation of this act of terrorism,” said Gardezi.

The petitioner has no locus standi (right of speak) in this matter and the petition was also filed after a lapse of three years of the incident and should be dismissed, he added.

Gen Musharraf has already been booked in four cases including judges detention case, Benazir Bhutto, Akbar Bugti and Lal Masjid’s cleric Ghazi Abdul Rasheed murder cases.— A Reporter