KARACHI, Sept 30: A district and sessions court declared a former chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau, his brother and three senior police officers proclaimed offenders on Tuesday and asked the interior ministry to contact Interpol for the issuance of red warrants in a 1999 case related to an alleged murder attempt on President Asif Ali Zardari, who was then in jail custody.

The proclamation order was passed against former Ehtisab Bureau chairman Saifur Rehman, his brother Mujibur Rehman, former Sindh police chief Rana Maqbool, DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi and former SP of the Karachi Central Prison, Najaf Mirza.

The additional district and sessions judge, south, Irfan Hussain Siddiqui, also attached the immovable and moveable properties of all the accused. The court also ordered the interior ministry to contact Interpol for the issuance of red warrants against those who were reported to be out of the country.

When the hearing began on Tuesday, the DIG for investigation appeared before the court and submitted a detailed report about the police attempt to serve arrest warrants on the accused. He submitted that the police could not find any of the accused persons and the service of the arrest warrants on them was not possible as the residence of Rana Maqbool and others were locked.

Earlier, the court had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the five accused, but police failed to arrest any of them. On the previous hearing of the case, a report submitted before the court by a low-ranking police officer stated that the warrants could not be executed as two of the accused were abroad while the others had gone into hiding. The police were finding it difficult to track down the accused. However, the court refused to accept the report and warned the officer that warrants for his arrest could be issued for misleading the court. Later, on the request of the public prosecutor the court ordered the DIG for investigation to appear in person on Sept 30 to submit a compliance report with regard to the service of the NBWs the court had issued for the eighth time.

According to the prosecution, the respondents were accused by Mr Zardari of unlawfully obtaining his physical custody from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and May 16, 1999, taking him to the CIA centre and torturing him to extract incriminatory statements. His tongue was slashed and he bled profusely, but the police refused to register an FIR against the then IG and covered up the incident as an attempt to commit suicide by the victim.

Mr Zardari then approached the high court.

An SHC division bench comprising Justices Abdul Hameed Dogar and Hamid Ali Mirza held the ATC’s remand order unlawful and ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.

An inquiry by former Malir district and sessions judge Salman Ansari found that the wounds inside Mr Zardari’s mouth and other parts of his body could not be self-inflicted. An FIR was registered in February 2005 and the magistrate concerned sent the case up for trial by a sessions court. Investigation was assigned to an Artillery Maidan inspector – but the then chief minister transferred the investigation to DSP Chaudhry Aslam – who submitted a report to the seventh additional district and sessions judge (south) under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code, recommending that the case be consigned to ‘C’ class and proceedings quashed for the absence of evidence and corroboration of the complainant’s version.

The ADSJ disposed of the case as prayed and acquitted all the accused on June 30, 2006.

Mr Zardari moved a revision application against the ADSJ’s order in the SHC. The SHC on May 27, 2008 reopened the case and directed the trial court to initiate hearing of a murder attempt case.