Pak lawyer urges court to stall Benazi's book for 'defaming' his client

Islamabad, Aug 7 : A lawyer in Islamabad has reportedly moved a court urging it to stop the sale of the book - "Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West", written by former premier Benazir Bhutto, for mentioning (in the book) that his client Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in the October 2007 Karachi bombings which claimed 150 lives.

Hashmat Habib, the lawyer, described the allegation as "baseless".

The lawyer also sought more than 200 million dollars in damages from British publishers Simon and Schuster, printers, sellers, and her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari as her "heir and beneficiary".

Habib said an additional session court in Islamabad had issued notices to the defendants to appear on Sept 5, reported The News.

Ms Bhutto survived the October attack, which targeted her motorcade as supporters welcomed her back from exile. The ex-premier was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack in December in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. She had finished writing the book shortly before her assassination.

The book was published in mid-February, and Akhtar was arrested later in the month. He was freed in June and was not formally charged.

Lawyer Habib is known to have links with Al Qaeda.

ANI