Islamabad - Former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf Monday moved before a local court a fresh application seeking permanent exemption from appearance in Ghazi Abdul Rasheed murder case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Wajid Ali Khan conducted the hearing and Tariq Asad Advocate appeared before the court on behalf of plaintiff Haroon Rasheed Ghazi, son of late Ghazi Rasheed, while Malik Tahir Mehmood represented former President Musharraf.
During the hearing, Musharraf’s counsel submitted a fresh application under Section 40 of CrPC and sought his client’s permanent exemption from appearance before the case in this matter by producing a new medical report of the former military ruler.
He contended that Musharraf could not appear before the court due to his bad health conditions and security reasons.
The counsel further argued that an accused could be granted permanent exemption in a case where more than one accused are involved.
On this occasion, Tariq Asad opposed the application and maintained that if Musharraf could appear in TV programmes then why he could not come to the court.
Later, the court directed the counsel for Haroon Rasheed to complete his arguments on the next hearing on the application and deferred the hearing till May 5 for further proceedings in this case.
Meanwhile, the federal government Monday filed an application before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and sought cancellation of post-arrest bail granted to former Chairman Employees’ Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) Zafar Iqbal Gondal by this court in corruption case.
Chief Justice IHC, Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi has admitted the federal government’s petition for regular hearing and issued notices to Gondal and other respondents. After issuing the notices, the IHC single bench adjourned the hearing with date in office.
The federal government has moved the court through Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Fazl-ur-Rehman Niazi and filed this bail cancellation application against the order dated April 14 where Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi of the IHC had granted bail to Gondal.
Zafar Gondal is the main accused in multi-billion rupees EOBI land scam and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in September 2014 had arrested him after his protective bail was rejected by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
On previous hearing, the IHC bench had directed DAG Niazi to produce bail orders of the other accused persons involving this case.
During the hearing on Monday, the DAG produced the orders before the court and informed that one accused was granted bail due to the fact that he was old and a cancer patient.
The other accused was granted bail because he had opposed Gondal’s decision to purchase the land and had asked him to evaluate the land first. The second accused later faced Gondal’s vengeance as he was not only transferred but was also repatriated.
Niazi further told the court that Gondal is principal accused in this case and there is prima facie strong evidence against him.
On April 14 when an IHC bench had granted bail to Gondal another DAG had told the court that Gondal’s co-accused Rana Abdul Qayyum admitted before the Supreme Court that Gondal has been pressurizing him for the payment of his kickbacks and he had also registered an FIR with Kohsar police station in this regard.
He had further informed that Rana Abdul Qayyum for settlement of the case had also submitted a checque in the Supreme Court worth 376 million rupees that was bounced later on.
The co- accused in this case Rana Abdul Qayyum had withdrawn his bail application on March 02 and consequently it was dismissed.