Dramatic turn: Complainant withdraws from judges’ detention case

Insisting he is not under pressure, advocate says his decision motivated by national interest.

ISLAMABAD:

In a dramatic turn of events, the main complainant in the judge’s detention case against former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf disassociated himself from the case on Friday.

“I have decided to drop the case as I feel it is in the interest of the country,” Advocate Chaudhry Aslam Ghuman announced at a hurriedly-called news conference on Friday night.

The case is based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered against Musharraf on August 11, 2009 by the police secretariat for detaining over 60 judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Advocate Ghuman – the chief complainant – had submitted an application before the local police station.



On April 20, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui rejected Musharraf’s bail plea and ordered his arrest. Later, the Islamabad chief commissioner declared Musharraf’s Chak Shehzad farm house a sub-jail.

Ghuman, accompanied by two friends, failed to justify why he disassociated himself from the case. He, however, said the country is going through turmoil and he felt he should not peruse it any further.

“What will the country gain, if I pursue the case?’’ he asked.

Advocate Ghuman claimed he was under no pressure to withdraw himself from the case, and took the decision in the supreme interest of the country. “I’m a professional lawyer...there is no pressure on me neither from the military nor any political party,” he said.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) will take up Musharraf’s bail on Saturday (today).

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