Plane hijacking case
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday was informed that the original record of the “plane conspiracy case” was tampered, which led to delay in lodging the FIR against Nawaz Sharif as it was registered after the lapse of one month from the occurrence.
A five-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jillani, was hearing an appeal filed by former prime minister and PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif against his conviction in the plane hijacking conspiracy case.
Other members of the bench included Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Mohammad Moosa K Leghari, Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
Resuming his argument, Khwaja Haris, counsel for Nawaz Sharif, submitted that the communication record of the aircraft carrying former army chief Pervez Musharraf was not produced before the trial court for witness purpose.
The counsel submitted that the Army had captured the PM House and the Karachi Airport at 6.45pm on October 12, 1999, after this, someone else, not the prime minister, was giving the directions.
He told the court that the statement of the then Director General (DG) Civil Aviation Authority, Aminullah Chaudhry, differed from the statements of other witnesses. He said the statements of some 150 people were recorded in the case.
He submitted that Aminullah Chaudhry had become an approver before his confession; thus, he had given fabricated statements, saying that he followed the directions from the prime minister regarding stopping the plane from landing.
The counsel submitted that Aminullah had given fabricated statements just to save his job from potential threats. He said his statement did not match with any other statements of witnesses.
Haris further contended that the statement of Brig Javed Iqbal, the then military secretary to Nawaz Sharif, has mentioned that the Army had taken over the control of Pakistan Television (PTV) building at 1745 hrs, and afterwards nothing was in control of Nawaz Sharif.
He informed the court that since the prime minister had appointed a new Army chief and after knowing about the movement of the Army in disagreement with the decision, Nawaz Sharif was competent to divert the plane from Karachi to Nawabshah in larger interest of the country and save the Army from division. He said at that moment it was not the prime minister whose directions were being implemented rather someone else was issuing directions to the pilot.
He said Musharraf was in contact with the control tower, and before the aircraft landing, he wanted to ensure that everything was under the Army control. Army officers were present at the airport prior to the landing of the plane, he added.
The court adjourned the hearing till today (Thursday). PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against his conviction in the plane hijacking conspiracy case. He had prayed for granting leave to appeal against the verdict of the Sindh High Court on October 30, 2000. He had also prayed that after converting the same into appeal, the conviction and sentences passed against him be set aside.
Source: The News
Date:6/11/2009
” 
” 
” 
” 
