KARACHI A sessions court on Saturday directed Rana Maqbool, a former inspector-general of the Sindh police, to surrender himself before the court within 10 days in a case pertaining to an attempt on the life of Asif Ali Zardari in 1999.
Former chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother Mujibur Rehman Khan, former Sindh police chief Rana Maqbool, former DIG Farooq Amin Qureshi and then superintendent of the central prison Najaf Mirza are booked in the case.
When the matter came up for hearing before the additional district and sessions judge (south), Abdul Razzaq, Rana Mohammad Shamim appeared in court and submitted an undertaking stating that he would represent Rana Maqbool and file his Vakalatnama on the next hearing.
He stated that the court could not issue warrants for the accused as it was against the law. Besides, he was facing death threats and a petition in this regard was also pending in the Supreme Court, adding that notices or warrants were never served on his client and he had recently come to know about the reopening of this case when the court called a report from the chief secretary of Punjab.
However, Public Prosecutor Kaleemullah and counsel for the complainant Ashiq Solangi submitted that the apex court had already dismissed the plea of the accused and requested the court to issue non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Rana Maqbool and Farooq Amin Qureshi.
The court granted 10 days to Rana Maqbool to surrender himself and observed that if he failed to do so, non-bailable warrants would be issued for his arrest. The judge also directed the police to arrest Farooq Amin Qureshi and produce him in court.
According to the prosecution, the accused had obtained the physical custody of Asif Ali Zardari apparently in an illegal manner from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and 16, 1999 and took him to the CIA Centre, where they allegedly tortured and forced him to record incriminatory statements.
The case (FIR 16/2005) was registered in February 2005 at the Artillery Maidan police station after an inquiry conducted by a district and sessions judge established that the injuries were not self-inflicted.
The trial court, however, disposed of the case and discharged all the accused in June 2006. Asif Zardari had moved an application in the Sindh High Court to challenge the trial court's order. On May 27, 2008 a single bench of the high court suspended the trial court's order.
All the accused were declared proclaimed offenders on Sept 30, 2008 since the police failed to execute their non-bailable warrants of arrest. Later, accused Najaf Mirza appeared before the court and got pre-arrest bail.
