High treason: Musharraf wants full bench minus CJ to hear petition

Supreme Court office returns application on technical grounds.

ISLAMABAD:

Former army chief Pervez Musharraf filed an application with the Supreme Court on Saturday, asking for a full bench to hear the petitions seeking his trial for treason. Pointedly, the application asked for Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to not be a part of the bench.

However, the SC office returned the application, which was filed by Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri on Musharraf’s behalf, on the grounds that a joint application had been filed against five petitions when a separate application should be filed against each petition. The office also noted that the application did not explain on what grounds the request for a larger SC bench had been made.

Moved under Order 33, Rule 6 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980, the application highlighted that under Section 3 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973, it is the exclusive domain of the federal government to initiate proceedings against any person who abrogates, subverts or suspends the Constitution, or holds it in abeyance by the use of force.



“Thus the Supreme Court is not competent under the dictates of the Constitution to issue any direction to the federal government to initiate proceedings against Pervez Musharraf under the High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973,” stated the application. It argued that the law has virtually closed the doors for anyone other than an authorised officer of the federal government to initiate such proceedings.

The application contends that any directions issued by the SC to initiate high treason proceedings against the former president would be a “blatant violation of the principle of the tracheotomy of power, which is one of the components of the basic structure theory of the Constitution as held by the superior courts in their respective judgments.”

The application further maintained that the powers of all organs of the state, namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, had been regulated by the Constitution.

“As long as all three organs exercise their power according to the Constitution, it ensures harmonious working of the state. But as soon as one organ oversteps its constitutional parameters of power and enters the domain of another organ … it results in constitutional deadlock,” it stated.

The application did not, however, mention any arguments to justify the request for a full bench of the SC.

Later, the court officer returned the petition on the grounds that a joint application had been filed against five petitions when a separate application should be filed against each petition.

“This is nothing but an obstruction in the process of justice,” complained Kasuri while talking to the media. He added that he would certainly raise the issue before the two-judge bench on Monday.

The former president faces five identical petitions requesting the SC to direct the federal government to initiate a treason case against him for the steps he took on November 3, 2007. A two-judge SC bench comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain will resume hearing the petitions on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2013.