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Sharief to be produced in court today

Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharief will be produced before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi today to face charges of attempted murder, hijacking and criminal conspiracy, The Dawn reported.

The airport police will seek Sharief's remand for further investigations. Sharief, the prime accused in the October 12 conspiracy case, was brought to Karachi in a special plane from Islamabad late last night, the paper said quoting highly placed sources.

The deposed prime minister was in the custody of a law enforcement agency, and would be handed over to the airport police in the morning, it said.

The army authorities have allowed a Pakistan Muslim League parliamentary group and its allies to meet Sharief.

PML vice-president Ejaz-ul Haq said the names of those meeting Sharief would be submitted to the authorities. This would be the first direct contact with him by his party leaders since his removal. Earlier the military government had allowed Sharief to speak with his family on the telephone.

However, when contacted on Tuesday night, officials declined to confirm or deny the report, the paper said.

Meanwhile, prosecution sources said the police would seek an extended remand of the four other accused in the case.

The case emanates from the denial of permission to land to a Pakistan International Airlines passenger plane that was bringing the Pakistan army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, home from Colombo. About 200 other passengers were on board.

This would be Sharief's first public appearance since the army seized power in a bloodless coup on October 12 after the plane carrying General Musharraf was denied permission to land.

The other accused - including Sharief's former adviser on Sindh affairs Syed Ghaus Ali Shah, former PIA chairman Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi and former director general of civil aviation Aminullah Choudhry -- were on Monday remanded to police custody till November 18.

UNI

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