Karachi, Sept 13: A Pakistani court today rejected a defence demand that President Pervez Musharraf be summoned to testify in the trial of five Islamic militants charged with plotting to kill him. Judge Aale Maqbool Rizvi ruled that the country's constitution provided Musharraf with immunity against appearing. "The president has immunity under the constitution and therefore he cannot be called," the anti-terrorism court judge said in a brief order. But the judge allowed five other defence witnesses, including the head of the president's protocol office, to testify before the court at the next hearing date on September 20. Police allege Islamic militants parked an explosive-laden vehicle on a busy Karachi road which Musharraf's motorcade was expected to pass on April 26, 2002.

The plot failed because a remote control detonator malfunctioned, according to police.


The same vehicle was later used in an attack on the US Consulate in Karachi in which 12 Pakistanis were killed, police say.


Mohammad Imran Bhai, Mohammad Ashraf, Hanif Ayub, Arsalan Shahrib Farooqi and Wasim Akhtar, who were formally charged last week, have denied the charges. Bhai and Ayub were sentenced to death in may for their role in the June 14, 2002 car bomb attack on the US Consulate.

Police have said the five are members of the Islamic extremist organization Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Alami, an offshoot of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, the terrorist outfit active in Kashmir.


Bureau Report