PML-N government will try Musharraf for treason: Report

PML-N leader Tariq Azeem says Nawaz Sharif has nothing personal against Musharraf.

LAHORE: The incoming Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government will hold the trial of former president Pervez Musharraf over charges of treason, reported Press Trust of India on Tuesday.

The report quoted PML-N parliamentarian Tariq Azeem as saying that the party has decided to try Musharraf for treason in the Supreme Court.

“General Musharraf had violated the Constitution and he should face the music,” he was quoted as saying.

Azeem added that prime minister-elect Nawaz Sharif has made it clear that he has no personal issue with Musharraf but “he should be tried for breaking the law and violating the Constitution”.

The retired general has been detained in his farmhouse in Islamabad since April 19 on charges of conspiracy to murder former premier Benazir Bhutto, sacking of judges when he imposed emergency rule in 2007, and the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti.

The caretaker government had refused to hold Musharraf’s trial, saying that it wanted to focus on conducting free and fair elections.

Senior political analyst Raza Rumi had said that the greatest dilemma PML-N faces for its incoming government is whether to prosecute Musharraf.

“If PML-N goes ahead with Musharraf’s trial it runs the risk of enraging Pakistan’s powerful military establishment. If not, then it loses the moral high ground it has maintained for a decade,” he told The Express Tribune.