Ghazi murder case: Verdict on Musharraf’s plea likely today

Defence maintains army was called in by govt to carry out Lal Masjid operation

ISLAMABAD: A sessions court will announce its verdict on Saturday on an application filed by former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf challenging the Ghazi Abdur Rasheed murder case.

Akhtar Shah, Musharraf’s lawyer, has maintained in the application that the army was called in by civilian authorities to carry out the Lal Masjid operation under Article 245 of the Constitution.

In the last hearing, Shah had argued that the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration and the Islamabad Police had sent written requests to the army before handing over operational jurisdiction to them.



Shah has maintained in the petition, submitted to Additional District and Sessions Judge (West) Pervaizul Qadir Memon, that as per Section 132 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), no criminal case could be filed against any official of the armed forces when they were acting in aid of civil power except with the sanction of the government.

“Since the federal government’s sanction has not been obtained in this instance, the case against Musharraf is invalid,” Shah has said in the application. He has requested the court to quash the case.

In the previous hearing, while citing a report by a Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission which probed the operation and its consequences, Shah said, “Ghazi Abdur Rasheed was shot in the leg and asked to surrender, but militants shot back at SSG commandos and Ghazi was killed in the crossfire.”

The complainant’s lawyer, however, has maintained that even when acting in aid of civil power, the armed forces were bound to act within certain limits.

The court had reserved the judgment after hearing arguments from both sides.



The Aabpara police had registered a murder case against Musharraf on the directives of the Islamabad High Court on September 2, 2013. The former president was arrested on October 10 and was granted bail by a sessions judge on November 4, 2013.

The sessions court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Musharraf on February 20, and declared the former president a proclaimed offender in the case after he failed to appear before the court on May 21, 2016.

Musharraf’s counsel Shah filed an application in the same court on May 23 challenging the murder case against his client. He had requested the court to suspend the summons and proclamation process and decide his petition first.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.