Capital court: Fresh arrest warrants issued for Musharraf

Warrants issued in response to FIR registered against him in 2009 for imposing emergency in 2007.

ISLAMABAD: A capital court issued on Tuesday arrest warrants of former president Pervez Musharraf in response to a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him in 2009 for imposing emergency and detaining over 60 judges in 2007.

Civil Judge Muhammad Abbas Shah passed the order after the Secretariat Police submitted a fresh application seeking the issuance of his arrest warrant.

The Secretariat Police had registered a case against him in 2009 in response to an application filed by Advocate Aslam Ghuman.

Ghuman, in his application, termed the former president?s move of imposing emergency in 2007 and detaining over 60 judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, an illegal step and requested the court to register a criminal case against him.

Investigation Officer (IO) Muhammad Shahid told The Express Tribune that a fresh application was submitted before the civil court seeking the issuance of his arrest warrants.

It is pertinent to mention that the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi has summoned six prosecution witnesses, including US author Mark Siegel, on January, 5, 2013 to record statements in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

Siegel, a key prosecution witness who had known Benazir since 1984, claims that the former premier had received a telephone call from Musharraf in his (Siegel) presence and told her that he would not be responsible for her security if she returned to Pakistan before the elections. Siegel alleges that Musharraf knew about the assassination plot and had personally ordered the destruction of evidence.