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Plane conspiracy case No prosecution witness testified against me,

says Shahbaz

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Shahbaz Sharif, former chief minister of Punjab and one of the seven accused in the October 12 plane conspiracy case, on Thursday denied all the charges read out to him by the Anti Terrorist Court Judge, Rehmat Hussain Jaffery and said none of the prosecution witnesses had testified against him. He also said that the FIR did not mention his name as an accused.

After replying to all the questions put to him by the Judge Jaffery, Shahbaz said he was innocent and was implicated in the case out of vengeance and to prevent him form aggressively fighting the case against his brother, Nawaz Sharif and other co-accused in the court of law.

Shahbaz Sharif partly reading out from a written statement and partly speaking extempore completed the recording of his statement.

This completed the recording of statements of all the seven accused.

Like other witnesses, he also did not volunteer to give a statement on oath in his defence. Nor did he call any witness in his defence.

The proceedings were later adjourned till Monday, March 13, when the prosecution would present arguments. It would close its arguments on March 15. The defence would argue its case from Tuesday, March 20, and conclude on March 22, lawyers told reporters.

Shahbaz Sharif said that he had gone to Islamabad on October 12, 1999, for a meeting on law and order situation with the federal interior minister.

He said that went from Lahore to Islamabad at 10 a.m on October 12. After the meeting, "I met a Japanese diplomat and then went to Prime Minister House, he added.

He said he had a room in the PM House permanently reserved for him. He went there to take rest. "While I was still sleeping the army surrounded the PM House", he added.

Shahbaz Sharif said that all the witnesses being government servants were either coerced or tortured and tutored to give false statements in the case.

He gave details of how he was taken into custody, talked about the places he was kept in detention and then implicated in this case.

All the other accused were present in the court. The prosecution was headed by the advocate general of Sindh, Raja Qureshi, and the defence was led by Khawaja Sultan.