اعجاز چودھری نامی بندہ ہے بھی لوٹا - بولنے میں فواد چودھری اور شہباز گل جیسا بدتمیز خواجے کا گواہ ڈڈو ٹائپ - پی ٹی ای میں شمولیت بھی چڑھتے سورج کو سلام والی - اوپر سے پیسے کا ٹٹو - ٹکٹوں کی کروڑوں میں قیمت بتانے والا فرنٹ مین
اب ایسے بندے سے اگر کوئی وفا کی توقع کرے تو اس کا تو اللہ ہی حافظ ہے
اس کا نام لاہور بلوہ کیس میں پکا شامل ہو چکا ہے - اسے تو وعدہ معاف گواہ نمبر ایک لکھ لیں جی
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'I felt helpless' pilot tells Sharif trial
Pakistan's ousted PM is accused of risking 200 lives
Pakistan coup: special report
Jason Burke in Islamabad and AP in Karachi
Fri 4 Feb 2000 01.17 GMT
The ousted prime minister of
Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, sat stoney faced in court yesterday as a pilot described how he had pleaded with air traffic controllers in Karachi to allow his plane carrying 200 passengers to land before it ran out of fuel.
Mr Sharif is alleged to have ordered the plane to be stopped from landing in a deliberate attempt to endanger the life of one of the passengers, General Pervez Musharraf, the most senior soldier in the country, whom he had sacked a few hours earlier and who later assumed control of the country.
The pilot, Captain Syed Sarwat Hussein, said he was alarmed after being told by Karachi air traffic control that he could not land at the airport in the southern port city.
"I have 198 souls on board, a limited amount of fuel and if I'm not allowed to land - that will be the end of the story," Mr Hussein said he told the control tower.
Unknown to Mr Hussein, the prime minister had sacked the army chief at about the time the plane was taking off from Colombo, Sri Lanka. The pilot was forced into a desperate search for a safe place to touch down as his fuel supply rapidly dwindled.
"I felt helpless," Mr Hussein told the court. "It was a very tense situation, to say the least."
The flight from Sri Lanka was proceeding without incident until Mr Hussein made his first radio contact with the air traffic control tower in Karachi, and was immediately asked about the plane's remaining fuel supply.
"It was quite an unusual question," Mr Hussein said.
Even more unsettling, he was asked if he could find another airport to land. The plane had enough fuel to reach the airport in Nawabshah, also in southern Pakistan. But as the aircraft descended to land there, the pilot was told that it, too, was off limits.
"That created a very alarming situation because Nawabshah was available for other flights, but not to us," Mr Hussein said. "I reached the conclusion that it was because of the presence of the chief of army staff on board."
It was not until army generals loyal to Gen Musharraf made a last-ditch effort to secure Karachi airport that Mr Hussein was given permission to land, with about seven minutes of fuel remaining.
Lawyers appearing for Mr Sharif and his six co-defendants say the prime minister issued the order to divert the flight only after the coup was begun. They say the army coup was illegal and unconstitutional and that Mr Sharif was trying to defend "democracy" in Pakistan.
The former prime minister is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and terrorism. He faces a possible death sentence.
The case is being tried in a special anti-terrorism court, set up by Mr Sharif himself to expedite trials that were being delayed in Pakistan's absurdly inefficient judicial system. The new courts were criticised at the time by senior judges and human rights activists, who said the facilities would be used to crack down on the government's political opponents. Now, however, it is the army that is being accused of manipulating the judiciary.
Last week the army forced judges to swear new oaths of allegiance by which they agreed not to take any action against the current executive. Several senior judges resigned, claiming that the new oaths were a serious assault on the independence of the judiciary.
