| Fixed may be the operative word here... |
Official sources revealed to Daily Times that the CJP had constituted a special bench to hear the plea of Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam, former protocol officer of Benazir Bhutto, who registered a second FIR in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case against former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and twelve others. Sources said that the petition was heard on August 1, and was fixed for September 21 before being adjourned. It was, however, de-listed due to the hearing of the Seventh Wage Board Award cases.
On August 1, the court, while admitting the appeal of Chaudhry Aslam against the June 23 decision of the Lahore High Court (LHC), sought reports from the United Nations, Scotland Yard, Inspector General of Police Mian Majeed and an FIA investigation report on the BB murder case from the attorney general of Pakistan. On the last date of hearing, the CJP questioned whether the government had implemented the recommendations of the Scotland Yard and the UN after they investigated the case. The court also hinted at the constitution of a larger bench in the case after receiving the UN, Scotland Yard and police reports.
The LHC Rawalpindi bench had dismissed AslamÂ’s request for including Babar Awan, a respondent in the case, and Rehman Malik on the Exit Control List (ECL). One of the judges had written an additional note that Aslam was neither an aggrieved party, nor a legal heir of Benazir Bhutto and therefore had no right to lodge an FIR regarding her death. The applicant stated that the LHCÂ’s June 23 order was unlawful, perverse, without jurisdiction and based on the fanciful application of the mind. He said that the LHC had failed to give due consideration to the United Nations report, on which $60 million were spent for the investigation of BenazirÂ’s murder.