ATC summons plaintiff in terrorists' treatment case.

KARACHI -- An antiterrorism court on Saturday summoned a complainant to testify in a case pertaining to alleged treatment and harbouring of suspected terrorists at Dr Asim Hussain's private hospitals.

Dr Asim, a close aide to former president Asif Ali Zardari, with five others, has been charged with treating and harbouring suspected terrorists, political militants and gangsters at the North Nazimabad and Clifton branches of his hospital at the behest of some politicians.

The others booked in the case include Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders Amir Khan, Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, Rauf Siddiqui, Pak Sarzameen Party president Anis Kaimkhani, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Abdul Qadir Patel and Pasban leader Usman Moazzam.

On Saturday, the ATC-II took up the matter when the special public prosecutor G. M. Bhutto produced complainant Muhammad Inayatullah Durrani, the then Rangers deputy superintendent, for recording his statement.

However, the judge put off the hearing on the matter due to absence of the lawyer representing the paramilitary force and summoned the complainant on Nov 16 to record his statement.

So far the prosecution has examined only one, out of around 19 total witnesses, listed in the present case.

In his statement, witness Khurram Amin Khan, who is currently posted as a senior civil judge in Khairpur had deposed that during his posting as judicial magistrate (Central) he had recorded the statement of a prosecution witness Dr Yousuf Sattar of the Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Hospital under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, on Nov 30, 2015.

In his deposition, the witness had admitted that he had not asked Dr Sattar, as to whether or not he was recording the confession...