BHC accepts plea against ATC acquittal of Musharraf in Bugti murder case

QUETTA: The Balochistan High Court accepted on Tuesday the petition of Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti which challenged the verdict of Anti-Terrorism Court which acquitted retired Gen Pervez Musharraf, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Muhammad Shoaib Nusherwani in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.

The vacation judge of the Balochistan High Court, Mr Justice Shakeel Ahmed Baloch, heard the petition and ordered issuance of summons for the three accused in the case.

Former president Gen Pervez Musharraf, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and former Balochistan home minister Shoaib Nosherwani were acquitted by the ATC on Jan 18.

The BHC also issued two separate notices on the petition of Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti in which he had pleaded for exhumation of his father’s body in the presence of UN teams and DNA tests by an international forensic laboratory and production of 23 witnesses and two CDs in the case.

Mr Bugti’s counsel pleaded that the ATC had dismissed the acquittal petitions of the accused in an earlier judgement, but they were later acquitted on some technical grounds which he said was a violation of the law and the constitution.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016