News
Court rejects Musharraf’s plea to change chief prosecutor
By Amir Jalil Bobra
ISLAMABAD: The special court trying former dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf rejected an application challenging the appointment of Akram Sheikh as chief prosecutor. The special court in its decision on Friday said, “Since the court was not a constitutional court, it has no authority to hear the petition.”
It said that the special court was a “statuary court” established to hear the present criminal case, and lacked the jurisdiction to exercise the judicial review of administrative actions as available to a high court under the provision of Article 199 of the constitution. It said that this court couldn’t even sit in an appeal over an issue, which had already been adjudicated upon by the IHC in its constitutional jurisdiction.
The special court said that when the former president appeared in the court on March 31, he not only stated that he had “full confidence” in the judicial process as well as on each member of this bench, but also stated that he had “confidence in the prosecution team”.
While announcing the pending decision on former president’s petition, Abdul Ghani, the registrar of the special court, said the petition was not maintainable for hearing so the “judges rejected it”. In its decision, the special court said the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict on December 23, 2013 had “validated the appointment” of Akram Sheikh as the chief prosecutor.
On March 26, after the completion of arguments, the special court reserved its verdict on the application challenging the appointment of the chief prosecutor. The petition was filed by Musharraf’s counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan, alleging that the chief prosecutor expressed to prosecute his client under Article 6 of the constitution prior to the filing of the treason case against his client. He had also challenged Sheikh’s appointment in the IHC while stating that the appointment was not legitimate.
In a petition challenging the appointment of Akram Sheikh, the counsel for the accused questioned the neutrality and impartiality of the prosecutor with a prayer that the federal government be directed to appoint some independent and impartial legal practitioner for high treason trial against the former military dictator.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk