Petitioner challenges Musharraf verdict in SC Karachi registry

Petitioner demands registration of case against Nawaz Sharif, others

KARACHI: A plea seeking the annulment of the high treason verdict sentencing former president Pervez Musharraf to death was filed in the Supreme Court Karachi registry on Thursday.

Challenging the verdict, petitioner Mehmood Akhter Rizvi nominated the Government of Pakistan, the defence secretary, the law and justice secretary, the cabinet division secretary, the establishment secretary, former interior secretary Shahid Khan and the current interior secretary as parties in his plea.

Basing his argument on the 18th Amendment, Rizvi maintained that the charge of high treason did not apply to Musharraf because Article 6 was amended in 2010 while the former president had imposed a state of emergency in the country in 2007.

Musharraf to challenge special court's verdict

Therefore, he claimed, Musharraf did not violate any law or the Constitution during his rule

The plea stated that Musharraf had given his regime a legal status by conducting a referendum, going on to declare the verdict issued by the Supreme Court as illegal, unconstitutional and against Islamic values.

Rizvi, in his plea, asserted that the case against Musharraf was pursued in his absence, thus violating Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC), which states that the statement of the accused should be recorded before the trial court. He added that the verdict is unconstitutional as Article 10-A was violated by depriving Musharraf of his right to a free and fair trial.

Read: Detailed verdict issued in Musharraf treason case

He claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, conspiring with former interior secretary Shahid Khan and others, established a case against Musharraf on the basis of Article 6, grounded on mala fide intentions.

The plea demanded the annulment of the verdict issued by the special court on December 17, sentencing Musharraf to death, as well as the registration of a case against Sharif, Khan, and others under Section 182 of the CRPC.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2019.