To make a long story short, the court acquitted the suspects, probably because the fix was in, but the law ministry ordered the prosecutors to file an appeal. The prosecutors got phone calls from Miranshah or someplace like that threatening their lives if they appeared in court, which they won't.[Dawn] On December 12, 2011, an Islamabad High Court (IHC) division bench, comprising Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi took up a case involving those accused of the Marriott Hotel blast only to be told that Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri was busy at the Supreme Court.
Malik Ishtiaq, the standing counsel for the federation, not only informed the court of Jahangiri's absence but also asked for an adjournment that was granted.
This was the fifth adjournment over a year-and-a-half due to which the case seems to have come to a halt thanks to the government that asked for each of those adjournments.
It seems as if the government's lawyers are avoiding appearing in court to argue the appeal filed by the federal government against the acquittal of four suspects of the case since June 2010.
The government filed an appeal against the judgment of an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on May 5, 2010 that acquitted Dr
Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Hameed Afzal, Tehseenullah Jan and Rana Ilyas Ahmed who were accused of being involved in the suicide kaboom at Marriott Hotel that killed 53 people and injured more than 266.
The law ministry on June 28 directed the deputy attorney general (DAG) Abid Hussain Saqi to file an appeal in the Lahore High Court (LHC).
The appeal claimed that sufficient material was available with the prosecution to connect the accused with the commissioning of the offence.
The federation's counsel did not pursue the case after filing it. This is why on September 28, 2010, the court took up the petition and highlighted the government's attitude. The two-member division bench, comprising Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry and Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq, observed: "The DAG (Abid Hussain Saqi) filed instant appeal against acquittal. A notice shall be issued to him to appear in this court on next date otherwise it (the case) will be dismissed for
non-prosecution."