RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday challenged the verdict of an anti-terrorism court in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, arguing that the two guilty policemen as well as the five men acquitted of all charges deserve capital punishment.
The FIA moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the sentence through two separate petitions submitted on Friday. The first one argues that the two convicted culprits were not punished under the terrorism charges which were part of the case, Dawn online reported.
The federal government has changed its law officer in the case and has replaced former prosecutor with Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Faisal Mehmood Raja.
AAG Faisal Mehmood in the petition has taken the plea that norms of justice have not been met in the decision.
A division bench of LHC comprising Justice Tariq Abbasi and Justice Habib Ullah Amir will take up for hearing the appeal plea filed by federal government on October 2.
Earlier Asif Ali Zardari and convicted police officers Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad have already filed appeal pleas against the court’s decision in this case.
Last month, ATC had announced the verdict in the murder case, acquitting five Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan suspects — Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Rashid Ahmad and Aitzaz Shah — and announcing 17-year imprisonment for two former police officials. The court had also declared retired Gen Pervez Musharraf an absconder in the case, Dawn online reported.
The counsel for the agency also said that the ATC passed the verdict in a hurry without fulfilling legal requirements. According to the petition, filed in the Rawalpindi registry of the LHC, the two police officers — former city police officer Saood Aziz and former superintendent police Khurrum Shahzad — were sentenced under only two clauses each, whereas several other clauses, including terrorism, were also part of the case.
The petition said that the 17-year imprisonment granted to both culprits was much less than what they deserved, demanding capital punishment for them.
The second petition states that the five accused who were set free had also confessed to their involvement before a magistrate, so they also deserved rigorous sentences.
The five men were arrested within three months after the murder and they had confessed to their crime before a magistrate, while weapons and other materials were also recovered from their possession, said the petition.
The FIA asked the LHC to overturn the ATC’s decision, issue orders to arrest the five men, and award death sentences to them as well as the two former police officers.
The LHC accepted the petition, setting a date for the hearing in the case on October 2. Assistant Attorney General Faisa Mahmood Raja will be representing the FIA in the court.
PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari also challenged the ATC verdict of Aug 31 in LHC’s Rawalpindi bench earlier this month, seeking death penalty for retired Gen Pervez Musharraf and the two senior police officers.
The judge hearing the case was changed eight times.
In 2013, FIA’s special prosecutor in the case was killed by unknown assailants. Doctors said he had been killed with 10 bullets targeting his chest and shoulder.
