The prosecution in the Benazir Bhutto murder case on Monday dropped its fifth witness Senator Rehman Malik against retired General Pervez Musharraf due to his third consecutive absence since February 8. On February 2, an Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) of Rawalpindi summoned Malik to record his statement on February 8 but he failed to show up before the court on the date and even in the subsequent hearing on February 10; he was later asked to appear on February 15 but again he didn't show up.
On Monday, when ATC Judge Rai Mohammad Ayub Khan Marth resumed the proceedings of the Benazir murder case the prosecution requested the court to proceed with another witness as they are going to drop Malik from its list of witnesses. Earlier on February 3, Malik had claimed that his name was not included in the list as he never recorded a formal statement with the investigation agency, but voluntarily provided some information to the investigation agency regarding a meeting of Benazir Bhutto with General Musharraf held in Dubai prior to former's arrival in 2007. So far, three witnesses namely former secretary interior Syed Kamal Shah, former director general National Crisis Management Cell retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal and US lobbyist Mark Siegel have testified while the prosecution had already dropped former director general Intelligence Bureau retired Brigadier Ejaz Shah against General Musharraf.
Comments
Comments are closed.