Murtaza Bhutto

The counsel said the Clifton police station had registered six separate cases
against the dead members of the SB party for being in possession of weapons,
at which the tribunal asked the counsel how could a case be registered against
dead parsons? Four of the dead against whom cases were registered by the
police under 13 (d) of the Arms Ordinance were Sattar Rajpar, Sajjad Ghakro,
Yar Mohammad Baluch and Wajahat. On a question from the tribunal, which
comprises Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid (chairman), Justice Amanullah Abbasi
and Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad, the counsel said the police had not been
able to track down Abdullah Shah, Shukaib Qureshi and Zeeshan Kazmi, all
three of whom were believed to have gone into hiding.
The tribunal asked for the names of 11 policemen who were now under arrest
for being in possession of weapons and for using them. They were identified
as ASI Abdul Basit of Clifton police station, head constables Muslim Shah and
S. M. Hafeez, and constables Zafar Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ahmed, Ghulam Shabbir,
Ahmed Khan, Raja Hameed, Gulzar Khan, Zakir Mahmood and Ghulam
Mustafa. They were among the 33 personnel stated to have been present on
the scene.
At one stage, Ansari Abdul Latif, assistant advocate general assisting Mr
Kazi, claimed that right from the IG to a constable, everyone from the police
was involved. Manzoor Bhutta, counsel for the SB party endorsed Mr Latif's
statement, pleading the head of the police department be made responsible.
Abdul Ghani Soomro, counsel, was asked by the tribunal whether Abdullah
Shah was an absconder or not, to which the counsel replied he (Mr Shaha)
was not available and also that the former CM was not being represented by
him in the trial court. He said: "We are looking after his interest only before
the tribunal of inquiry, because we were engaged to do so." The tribunal
asked the government counsel how many shots had been fired by each of the
two parties on Sept 20, to which there was no specific reply and it was
submitted that a precise statement would be made in a day or two.
At this the chairman observed: "Nobody knows where we are. We are in the
grey area." The tribunal chairman explained that its function was fact finding
and its findings with recommendations would be submitted to the
government of Sindh for implementation and that it had no power to punish
or prosecute anybody. "We will make recommendations to do this or that and
it is up to the government to implement or not." In this connection, Justice
Zahid recalled the trial of the American football champion O. J. Simpson and
asked Khawaja Sharful Islam, counsel for SSP Wajid Ali Durrani, if he knew
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