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Friday, April 19, 2013
Musharraf ‘escapes’ IHC after arrest order
* Court rejects former army chief’s bail plea for illegally detaining 60 superior courts judges on November 3, 2007
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting former military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s plea for extension of his pre-arrest bail for illegally detaining 60 superior courts’ judges in their residences after the promulgation of emergency and PCO on November 3, 2007, the Islamabad High Court ordered the capital police to arrest him immediately, but Musharraf escaped from the courtroom.
The high court has again directed the Islamabad IGP to inform it about the steps taken to arrest the accused by appearing in person in the court today (Friday). Earlier, IHC’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directed the Islamabad police to add the charge of terrorism in the FIR against Musharraf. “Prima facie, offence under section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 is attracted from which punishment may extend to imprisonment for life. Local police is bound under the law to insert the section, which contents of FIR suggest,” the IHC said in its order.
The court observed that Musharraf’s act of confining to their residences the superior courts’ judges shocked entire nation, particularly the lawyers’ community and spread terror throughout the country. “This shameful act lowered the honour, prestige and status of the country in the eyes of nations spread over entire global face,” it added. The IHC has also taken notice over its registrar note regarding the capital police’s failure to arrest Musharraf.
The high court was told by its registrar that personal security guards of the former army chief facilitated and helped him escape instead of surrendering him before local police to be arrested. “Apparently this act of the petitioner (Pervez Musharraf) and his security guards is yet another offence, therefore Inspector General Police is directed to explain that why proper police force was not deputed to handle the situation,” the IHC further ordered.
The court also directed the Islamabad IGP to submit a report about all those people who acted in aid of Musharraf and take action against those police officials who, it remarked, remained napping instead of performing their duty with due diligence and care. Meanwhile, the legal team of Musharraf could not submit a pre-arrest bail petition in the Supreme Court against his arrest orders by the IHC. Pervez Musharraf’s lawyer Advocate Ibrahim Satti said the advocate-on-record had taken the petition to the Supreme Court but could not submit it as the court’s working hours had lapsed.
Satti added that the Supreme Court registrar and Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry were attending the full court meeting and the petition will be filed in the Supreme Court on Friday (today)Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk