Nawaz Sharif formally charged

By Amit Baruah

ISLAMABAD, JAN. 19. More than three months after the last year military coup, a Karachi anti-terrorist court (ATC), today formally charged the former Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, and six others with kidnapping, attempted murder, hijacking and terrorism. All the accused pleaded `not guilty' to the charges.

``No, Sir, I do not plead guilty,'' Mr. Nawaz Sharif said when the charges were read out to him. Mr. Rehmat Hussain Jaffry, ATC judge, however, dropped the charge of `waging war against the State.' A prosecution official was quoted as saying that this charge was merely `deferred.'

If convicted of these offences, the former Prime Minister and his co-accused could face the death penalty. Procedural delays had held up the final framing of charges even though the charge-sheet was filed on December 8, 1999.

In between, the Musharraf Government amended the Anti- Terrorism Act and appointed a High Court judge to man the ATC. However, Mr. Justice Shabbir Ahmed of the Sindh High Court returned the case to Mr. Jaffry after finding intelligence agents dotting his court-room.

In the indictment, Mr. Jaffry held that the accused ``have committed the crime of hijacking and thus endangering the lives of 198 passengers and crew members, including Gen. Musharraf and thus committed an attempt to murder and also unlawfully placing them in confinement.''

Apart from Mr. Nawaz Sharif, his brother, Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, Mr. Saeed Mehdi, senior official, Mr. Saif-ur-Rehman, former chief of the anti-corruption unit, Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former chief of Pakistan International Airlines, Mr. Ghaus Ali Shah, former adviser on Sindh affairs, and Mr. Rana Maqbool Butt, former IGP Sindh, are the other six accused.

Mr. Aminullah Chaudhury, another accused, was granted immunity after he opted to turn approver in the plane hijacking case in which it had been alleged that Mr. Nawaz Sharif attempted to divert the plane carrying Gen. Pervez Musharraf from Colombo to Karachi on October 12.

Addressing the court today, the ousted Prime Minister said that the Army Chief, whom he had `sacked' from office, had overthrown a democratically-elected Government.

``Actually, Gen. Musharraf hijacked the plane himself. He hijacked the democratically elected Government of Pakistan. Two dozen gunmen came to arrest me....up to November 19, I was not aware of the charges,'' Mr. Sharif was quoted as saying in Karachi.

Earlier, the ATC judge ruled that delay in handing over tapes of conversations between the control tower and the `hijacked' aircraft should not prevent the filing of formal charges against the accused.

After today's hearing, Mr. Raja Qureshi, Advocate- General of Sindh, claimed that Mr. Rehmat Hussain Jaffry had merely deferred the charge of waging war against the State.

The former Prime Minister's lawyer, Mr. Khwaja Sultan, was quoted as saying: ``We are satisfied with the conduct of the court....they were fair in dropping the (waging war against the State) charge.''

The defence, he said, would ask the court for permission to have Gen. Musharraf testify in the case.

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