Musharraf treason petition: Three-member SC bench to hear case

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Saturday announced yet another change in the composition of the panel of judges who will be hearing five identical petitions seeking the trial of former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on charges of high treason.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has now constituted a three-member bench of the apex court for the hearing of the petitions. The bench, comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan will resume hearings from Monday.

Earlier, a two-judge bench of Justice Khawaja and Justice Khilji had started hearing of the petitions when Chief Justice Chaudhry stepped down from the bench over a petition filed by Advocate Taufiq Asif, the president of the Rawalpindi chapter of the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

Musharraf is facing a barrage of cases, including the 2006 killing of Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti and the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

In the last hearing Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Musharraf’s counsel in the case, had requested the court to establish a larger bench saying that many important questions would be raised, requiring the attentions of a full bench.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2013.