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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Special court to try Musharraf for treason in DecBy Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: A special court will start functioning in the first week of December for the trial of former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf on treason charges.
The federal government on Monday issued a notification regarding appointment of Akram Sheikh as special prosecutor in the case but the lawyer could not obtain a copy of the notification.
Akram Sheikh had also represented Mansoor Ijaz in the memo commission case, which was filed by incumbent Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in November 2011.
Sheikh is known as a pro-judges lawyer and has appeared in several high profile cases, including those involving the Sindh High Court Bar Association, NRO and 18th Amendment.
Sources told Daily Times that Pervez Musharraf was contacting senior lawyers, who had played a pivotal role in the lawyers’ movement, to evolve a strategy for his case. Earlier, the Law Ministry on November 18 sent a one-page letter to the Supreme Court requesting the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to propose the names of judges for the special court.
CJP Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, instead of deciding the names himself, asked the chief justices of all the high courts to nominate a judge of their respective courts. On receiving the names from all the high courts, the CJP sent them to the federal government for selection of three.
Out of the five nominees, the prime minister nominated Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court, Justice Mohammad Yawar Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court and Justice Tahira Safdar of the Balochistan High Court for the special court. A three-member bench on July 3, 2013, in view of the federal government’s undertaking given on June 26, 2013, while disposing of the petitions that demanded registration of high treason case against Musharraf, directed the government to conclude the investigation without unnecessary delay.
It has also been learnt that the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) inquiry committee has so for failed to collect concrete evidence against Pervez Musharraf.
One of the members of the FIA investigation team, which was tasked with probing the high treason case, told Daily Times they have recorded the statements of many persons, directly or indirectly involved in the promulgation of November 3, 2007 emergency, but so far no concrete evidence could be collected against Pervez Musharraf regarding high treason.
The investigation officer also admitted that they could not collect solid evidence due to non-cooperation of several officials during the investigation, saying the team had no power to compel them in this regard. “There is need for special court’s assistance to get solid evidence in high treason case and we are filing a very brief complaint against the former army chief,” he added. A four-member FIA committee comprising Khalid Qureshi, Azam Khan, Hussain Asghar and Maqsoodul Hassan is collecting evidence against Musharraf in the treason case since July 3. Sources said that the FIA team had not declared the former military dictator lone accused in the treason case, and has also mentioned “others” in the complaint. They also said that despite sending three reminders, the defence secretary did not provide details of the meeting of core commanders of Pakistan Army in which the November 3, 2007 emergency was approved.
The FIA official said that they had intimated the Interior Ministry every week about non-cooperation of the Defence Ministry but Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan did not take any action in this regard. Sources also said that no FIR would be registered against Musharraf during the trial of that case. On the other hand, Attorney General of Pakistan Muneer A Malik has claimed that investigators have solid evidence against Musharraf in the high treason case and he might face capital punishment or life imprisonment.
Talking to reporters at the Supreme Court, the AGP said there was a great likelihood of the former military ruler’s conviction.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk