Bail to Musharraf: SC registrar returns petition on technical grounds

Petitioner says he will file the plea afresh .

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court registrar office on Tuesday returned an appeal against the grant of bail to former president Pervez Musharraf in a case regarding the 2007 detention of dozens of judges.

The petitioner, Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Ghuman, told journalists that his appeal was turned down on technical grounds and that he would file it afresh.

Citing Musharraf as respondent, the petitioner challenged the June 11, 2013 ruling of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granting bail to Musharraf and dropping terrorism charges against him.



A division bench of the IHC, while granting bail to the former military ruler, held that there was nothing to determine Musharraf’s role in putting over 60 judges under house arrest following the proclamation of emergency on November 3, 2007.

“The judges of the high court could not delete section 7 ATA while deciding the petition for bail,” Ghuman said, adding that the deletion of 7 ATA has prejudiced the case against Musharraf.

On August 11, 2009 Ghuman had lodged an FIR against Musharraf for illegally and unlawfully detaining 60 judges of the superior court after promulgating emergency and Provisional Constitutional Order in the country.

Musharraf’s acts affected the judicial system of Pakistan and caused mental torture to the lawyers and public at large, he added. “The dictator defamed the country in the comity of nations.”



Meanwhile a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, refused to hear an application of Ghuman who alleged that he was being harassed for pursuing the case against Musharraf.

Justice Chaudhry referred the application to the office directing it should be fixed before another bench. Justice Chaudhry has not been hearing cases involving Musharraf.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2013.