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Judge shifts hijacking case venue to Clifton

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: An Anti Terrorism Court Judge on Monday ordered the prosecution in the October 12 plane conspiracy case to provide copies of the spools of recordings maintained by the Civil Aviation Authority pertaining to PIA flight PK-805, to the defence counsel and adjourned the hearing till Tuesday.

ATC Judge, Rehmat Hussain Jafferi, to whom the case was transferred by the Administrative Judge of the Anti Terrorism court, Mr Justice Shabbir Hussain, of the Sindh High Court, on January 12, presided over Monday's proceedings.

Judge Jafferi also announced the shifting of the venue of the court to the old anti terrorism court premises at Clifton, which is sufficiently spacious and would be able to accommodate more people.

The court allowed a meeting between the accused and their family members.

The accused, deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, former chief minister of the Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, former chairman of the Ehtesab Bureau Saifur Rehman, former chairman of the PIA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former principal secretary to prime minister Saeed Mehdi, and former IGP Sindh Rana Maqbool were brought to the court at about 9:30 a.m. under tight security. The former adviser to prime minister on Sindh affairs Syed Ghous Ali Shah was not brought as he was said to be ill.

When the proceedings began, Judge Jafferi asked the prosecution to provide copies of the recordings of the CAA's spools to the defence in the presence of investigation officer of the court, in compliance with the verbal orders of Mr. Justice Shabbir Ahmed, administrative judge of the ATC.

Later, talking to newsmen, Advocate General of Sindh Raja Qureshi said he hoped that formal charges against the accused would be framed tomorrow (Tuesday). However, it all depended on the judge, he added.

He said the defence was creating hurdles and trying to delay the start of the trial. Their insistence on the audio recordings and other excuses for the last one month and ten days, had delayed the trial, he added.

According to APP on resumption of court proceedings Monday, after the transfer of case from the court of Administrative Judge, Justice Shabbir Ahmed to ATC presided by Judge Rahmat Hussain Jaferi located at KMC Rest House, the court inquired from the Advocate General Sindh Raja Qureshi about status of the case.

The AG informed the court that almost all formalities have been fulfilled by the prosecution under section 265-C of Cr.P.C., which requires to provide copies of all documents of the case to the defence before framing of the charges. He informed the court that all documents had been provided to the defence on December 8.

However, he said, the defence would not be able to get the copies of audio recording of the spools.

He referred to written report of one of the defence representative, Tahseen Dar, earlier sent under court verbal orders for getting the recording. However the latter was not able to get the same as it required 10 to 12 hours.

The AG further informed the court that written copies of the transcripts of all these recordings have already been provided to the defence and there is no bar on his side to proceed with the case.

The defence lawyer Khawaja Sultan, however, did not agree with the prosecution and pressed for the copies of recordings of the spools before further proceeding.

He referred to earlier court orders for providing the copies of audio recording of the spools.

The court directed the prosecution to make arrangement for provision of the copies of the audio cassettes by today and send the team of representatives from both prosecution and defence side to get it.

The AG read out Section 265-C and said copies of only four documents including FIR, challan, Investigation Officer's report and statements of the witnesses under Section 161 and 164 can be provided to the defence for the purpose of framing of charges.

The defence lawyers, however, disputed Qureshi's statement by pressing that recorded copies of spools are part of statements under Section 161 and 164, and so the same should also be provided to them.

The matter was settled down with the assurance by Raja Qureshi that those copies of audio recording would be provided today.

The Judge also heard both sides on some other miscellaneous applications and adjourned their hearings also for Tuesday.

Earlier, a defence lawyer, Khawaja Naveed invited the attention of the court towards non-compliance of court orders for provision of facilities to the accused in jail. He referred to a court order dated December 21, 1999, allowing the accused morning and evening walks for half an hour outside the compounds of the jail cells and shifting of all the accused into one barrack, but in different cells.

Naveed said that the court had ordered the Inspector General of Police to implement the order, but todate those orders are not fully complied.

The Sindh AG informed the court that most of the facilities have already been provided to the accused. However, he said, he had challenged the court order under another pending application dated December 27, seeking amendment in December 21 order.

The Judge told lawyers of both the defence and prosecution he would decide the matter on Tuesday.

On a request by Sindh AG the court again restricted the accused not to give any political statement to the press.

The court also observed that during the proceedings, proper decorum should be maintained in the court room. He made these remarks when accused Saifur Rehman was seen talking to a woman (probably his daughter) during the proceedings.

On the first day of the hearing of the case at KMC Rest House, the city administration had made adequate security arrangements and visitors as well as press were comfortably accommodated in the congested room.

According to informed sources both Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Saifur Rehman refused to attend today's proceedings and started offering prayers at 8.30 a.m. However, they were later brought to the court.