Despite the heavy police contingent, the former president was still whisked away by the Rangers personnel and his personal guards. PHOTO: REUTERS
Already in trouble with the Islamabad High Court, the federal capital’s police chief Bani Amin now had to explain to the Supreme Court why the police failed to arrest former president Pervez Musharraf on April 18.
Inspector General Islamabad police Amin told the court on Wednesday that police officials feared any attempt to arrest Musharraf at the IHC premises after he was denied bail would trigger a clash with the Rangers personnel deployed for his security.
The three-judge bench comprising justices Jawwad S Khawaja, Khilji Arif Hussain and Ejaz Afzal Khan was hearing the IG’s appeal challenging the IHC orders directing the interior secretary to take action against him for failing to arrest Musharraf.
In his statement, Bani Amin said more than 40 policemen were deployed outside the court when Musharraf’s bail plea was being heard. Despite the heavy police contingent, the former president was still whisked away by the Rangers personnel and his personal guards, he added.
The IG maintained that while the presence of Rangers initially led the police officials to believe they would aid them in arresting Musharraf, the paramilitary personnel acted otherwise. The police chief also claimed a number of Musharraf’s personal guards had been dressed in lawyers’ attire. Amin said that after receiving orders from the IHC, Islamabad police took the former president into custody around 3:30pm on April 18.
Justice Khawaja asked the police chief as to whether there was any notification about the deployment of Rangers for Musharraf’s security and whether the police had initiated any criminal proceedings against the paramilitary officials for preventing the former president’s arrest.
The bench did not accept the IG’s plea to stop IHC from issuing any orders that could adversely affect his promotion from BPS-20 to BPS-21 and deferred the hearing till Thursday (today).
Musharraf’s attorney
Meanwhile, Musharraf’s lawyers on Wednesday urged the SC to make all those persons who allegedly aided the former president’s ‘treasonous’ actions a party to the case.
Advocate Qamar Afzal, who was representing Musharraf before the three-member bench hearing identical petitions for the initiation of treason proceedings against his client, argued that any verdict on the petition would affect those who helped the former president’s actions as well. He contended that their right to fair trial, as such, would be infringed upon if they were not heard by the court.
The bench put off the hearing till Thursday (today).
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
Police feared Musharraf’s arrest would trigger clash with Rangers, says IG. What a joke.
During his rule, Musharraf had placed his supporters in powerfull positions in the military and since he has their support it might not be possible to bring him to justice or to bring him to justice without impediments.