Musharraf treason case: Caretakers focusing on polls, not prosecution, says AG

Govt says Interior secretary responsible for lodging complaint of treason.

ISLAMABAD:

What actions has the interior ministry taken to prosecute former president Pervez Musharraf for treason?  This was the question the Supreme Court put before the secretary of the interior by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja.

Earlier during proceedings, acting law secretary Sohail Qadeer Siddiqi informed the bench that the government had issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO) on December 29, 1994, designating the interior secretary as the officer responsible for lodging a complaint against any act falling within the definition of high treason.

The bench asked the interior secretary to put up his reply on the matter on April 22.

“The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is supposed to constitute a special court comprising of three judges of the high court for the trial of the individual accused of treason under article 6 of the Constitution and the High Treason Act 1973 only after the complaint has been lodged,” said Siddiqi when questioned by the bench as to what the ministry had done so far to initiate proceedings against Musharraf.

The judges observed that despite the July 31, 2009 ruling of the 14-member SC bench which declared Musharraf a usurper, and the unanimous January 23, 2012 Senate resolution calling for the former president’s trial, the federation had taken no action so far.

In his written response, Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the bench that the caretaker cabinet has been deliberating whether it had a mandate in this regard, given a shortage of time and its foremost priority of ensuring free and fair elections. He questioned whether initiating a high treason case in the present scenario would harm the impartiality of the caretaker set-up, and whether the move would be more appropriate after the elections had been held considering the interior ministry was preoccupied with providing security to candidates for the polls.

Qadir also noted that the 14 judges who gave the 2009 verdict had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order of 1999, to which Justice Khawaja responded by telling him to prosecute those judges as well as the government had the authority to prosecute all ‘abettors and conspirators’.

Meanwhile, Musharraf’s defence team led by Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri, once again stressed the constitution of a full court bench minus Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to hear the case.

Kasuri maintained that since the six identical petitions against the former president relied upon the SC’s 2009 judgment, it was likely the verdict would be revisited during proceedings.

Musharraf granted 7-day interim bail

The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted Pervez Musharraf a seven-day interim bail in the Benazir Bhutto murder case. The former president, however, was ordered to submit two surety bonds worth Rs500,000 each.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2013.