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Sharief may be taken to magistrate on Monday

Ovais Subhani in Karachi

Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharief will soon be moved to Karachi to face charges of hijacking and attempted murder, the police said.

''He (Sharief) will be sent to Karachi, probably some time by Monday,'' a senior Karachi police official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

A senior military officer filed a formal complaint on Wednesday against Sharief and four others in connection with the attempted diversion on October 12 of a plane carrying General Pervez Musharraf, who hours later overthrew Sharief in a bloodless coup.

Convictions on some of the charges could carry death sentences.

The police sources said the four others were formally arrested earlier today and were now in Karachi.

''The accused were handed over to the police by the military authorities after midnight. They will be produced before a magistrate, probably with Nawaz Sharief, on Monday,'' the official said.

The four are former Pakistan International Airlines chairman Shahid Khakan Abbasi, Sharief's former advisor Ghous Ali Shah, former Sindh provincial police chief Rana Maqbool and Aminullah Chaudhry, former director general of the civil aviation authority.

The police official said the four, now detained in a government hostel in Karachi, would be taken to a police station on Saturday to record their statements.

The police would then ask a magistrate for custody of the accused for at least 14 days to interrogate them. After that, the accused would be brought before a court for a formal hearing of the charges.

The Karachi police said on Thursday that they would press formal charges against Sharief within a few days.

Reuters

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