ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court was moved against the order of Lahore High Court to grant bail to former City Police Officer (CPO), Rawalpindi, in the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

Rasheeda Bibi on Wednesday filed an appeal through Sardar Latif Khosa under Article 185 of the Constitution against the Division Bench of LHC order dated October 5, 2017. She made Saud Aziz, ex-CPO, the State and SHO City Rawalpindi Kashif Riaz Khan as respondents. She stated that one of the most visionary leaders of the country Benazir Bhutto along with her 23 associates having been brutally assassinated and 72 people seriously injured was not a case of warranting such causal approach in releasing out the convict in short span of time.

She said Saud Aziz, former CPO and Khurran Shehzad, ex-SP, Rawalpindi, were privy to the entire conspiracy of eliminating Benazir Bhutto and responsible for the whole gory incident. The Challan Report had unequivocally linked them with the entire crime but they were leniently dealt without considering the actual narrative by the high court.

The petitioner contended that the Division Bench completely misdirected itself by holding that the superior courts were of the consistent view that despite bar in appeal the sentence can be suspended in writ jurisdiction. The important questions of law and facts have been ignored by the LHC requiring authoritative pronouncement by the apex court.

She said in view of the specific bar in section 28(8) of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 the impugned order of granting bail by the high court was not at all warranted in the law. The LHC jurisdiction cannot be extended to override the clear and unambiguous mandate of law prohibiting the grant of bail pending appeal of convicts whose criminality has been established.

The petitioner stated that appeals filed by State as well as the heirs of Benazir Bhutto seeking death sentence of Saud Aziz and other accused in the appeal before LHC should have been heard and decided along with the appeals of the convicts.

The high court has completely misdirected itself in exercising its equitable jurisdiction which even as per the order itself establishes the gravest criminal misdeeds of former CPO, Rawalpindi.