News
Monday, April 08, 2013
CJP won’t hear treason case against Musharraf* Justice Jawad will head two-member bench
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: All eyes are set on the Supreme Court today (Monday), which takes up a treason case against former president and chief of army staff Gen Pervez Musharraf.
The court will initiate proceedings against the former military ruler under High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973, but Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will not hear this matter. According to the details, Supreme Court’s office has revised the cause list on Sunday and the case against former dictator has been fixed before the two-member bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja. Earlier, according to the cause list of Friday, the case was fixed before the three-member bench headed by the chief justice.
In view of the fresh supplementary cause list, a two-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain will take five different petitions today against Musharraf. It has been learnt that senior lawyer Hamid Khan, who played a pivotal role in the restoration of judiciary, will mainly argue the case on behalf of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi Bench. Rawalpindi Bar Association is known as a pro-judiciary bar, which has always stood by the incumbent judiciary in every matter since the start of lawyers’ movement.
The court has also fixed a petition filed by the Association of Pakistani Lawyers (APL), a team of Pakistani origin lawyers, solicitors, barristers and judges in the UK, for stopping Musharraf from contesting the upcoming elections because he mutilated constitution twice on October 12, 1999, and November 3, 2007. The APL has sent a petition to the CJP requesting an urgent action under Article 184(3) of the constitution to stop him from filing for any public office and require him to appear before the apex court which he disobeyed on November 3, 2007, by imposing a “mini martial law” (emergency).
The APL has asked the Supreme Court to take notice and stop the election candidacy of General Musharraf under article 62 and 63 of the constitution for violating the order of the November 3, 2007 (larger bench of the SC) forbidding him to take any unconstitutional measure to tame the judiciary and topple the elected dispensation. The APL has requested that a show-cause notice may be issued asking him to come to court and plead his defence or face the law of the land and the courts for violating the constitution and court order under Article 204 of the constitution, and that he has been already declared a usurper by the said court by a judgement dated 31 July 2009.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk