Musharraf treason case: Court order puts Zahid Hamid in a bind again

PML-N government had earlier assigned him the portfolio of law as well, but he voluntarily resigned from the cabinet

ISLAMABAD:

A recent order of the special court trying former president General Pervez Musharraf for treason has once again put Climate Change Minister Zahid Hamid in a precarious position.

According to one of Hamid’s close aides, the minister is weighing his options on how he can navigate himself out of this tricky situation.

Towards the end of last month, the three-member special court directed investigators looking into the case to once again probe the role of Hamid – who was the federal law minister under the Musharraf regime – along with former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz in the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007.

Hamid had only recently been made a part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet again after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) set aside the special court’s earlier order which declared him an abettor in the case. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government had earlier assigned him the portfolio of law as well, but he voluntarily resigned from the cabinet after the special court named him an abettor in the treason case.

A few days ago, the IHC decided not entertain Dogar’s petition against the more recent special court order, creating a worrisome situation for Hamid once again.

A close aide to Hamid told The Express Tribune that the minister will not quit the cabinet this time around and will instead prove his innocence in this case. “The official record shows that Hamid did not sign the emergency order of Musharraf. There is [a] signature of the then law secretary on the summary,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2015.