The former general will be given all opportunity to provide his defense, says SC. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
ISLAMABAD:
Moving a step closer to putting Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason, the government on Thursday constituted a committee to interrogate the former president for subverting the constitution.
Briefing parliament, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar revealed that a four-member committee had been set up to probe charges of treason under Article 6 of the Constitution, during Musharraf’s tenure between 1999 and 2008.
“The committee will keep the interior ministry posted on progress on a weekly basis and should submit its findings within a short period of time,” Nisar said.
The committee will be made up of four senior officers, Additional Director Generals Khalid Qureshi and Azam Khan and Senior Directors Hussain Asghar and Maqsoodul Hassan of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
FIA Additional Director Khalid Qureshi was the chief investigator in the Benazir Bhutto murder case and led the Joint Investigation Team that questioned Musharraf earlier. Qureshi was also the member of the team that probed Mumbai attacks case.
Additional Director, Azam Khan, has been representing FIA in the SC while looking after legal matters of the agency. The other team member Director Hussain Asghar was the chief interrogator in the Hajj scam case.
Interior ministry officials reveal that the team will operate under the FIA Act 1974, which allows it to interrogate any citizen who has been accused of violating the law.
We will prepare the case by collecting necessary evidences, a member of the committee told The Express Tribune. It will be real test case for FIA’s team to record statements of all high profile officials, he added.
The member hoped that the investigation would not take more than two months for completion. Once complete, the report will be submitted to the apex court as well as to the trial court hearing the treason case, he added.
In light of the Supreme Court directive, the committee is likely to interrogate Musharraf, former Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Secretary Interior Kamal Shah, officials revealed.
Yet sources caution that the FIA team may not be able to interrogate high-ranking military officers, who had backed Musharraf in 2007, voicing fears that the FIA Act of 1974 was silent on this specific issue.
Talking to The Express Tribune, former FIA Director General Zafarullah Khan said the case would be litmus test for the federal agency.
Impartiality of Trial
Facing the prospect of standing trial for high treason, former president Pervez Musharraf penned his fears about the impartiality of the superior judiciary, federal government and media about his trial under article 6 of the constitution.
In a three page response to the stance of the federal government, Musharraf’s counsel Ibrahim Satti argued that the former army chief was not afraid of standing trial under the High Treason Act provided that he is given the right to a fair trial by an impartial tribunal without any interference.
Satti argued that the former president was apprehensive of a trial by a judiciary directly affected by his actions and a federal government, now headed by the person he had ousted from power in October, 1999.
Taking exception to the media hype surrounding the case, the incarcerated former head of state also raised objections to the media trial being undertaken against him, saying the matter was sub judice.
“Attorney General Munir A Malik has stated that the government has decided to proceed against Musharraf in line with the earlier ruling of the SC. Such an impression, that the apex court had already declared Musharraf guilty of abrogating the constitution would badly affect the treason trial,” said Satti, adding that Malik had also played a leading role in the lawyers’ movement against Musharraf.
The three member bench of the Supreme Court (SC), which is hearing the petitions, observed that due process and fair trial could not be denied to any person facing a criminal case and the former general will be given all opportunity to provide his defense.
Meanwhile, the apex court issued an official handout clarifying that it had not reserved its judgement in the case and would continue proceedings on Friday (today).
Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2013.
COMMENTS (3)
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These investigators have handled BB murder investigation? Well then we know the outcome of this case as well.
Musharraf is objecting the judiciary, so where are they going to get the justices perhaps from Mars who could try him. He had incarcerated the senior most justices and now they are the ones who will try him. I say the the justices should see to it that he gets more then fair trial and prove to the world that Pakistan's highest judiciary is as competent and fair as any judiciary of any country of the world. I think they will be fair and as far NS is concerned, he has already showed us by his actions that he was not there to take revenge from Musharraf. However Musharraf must face the music now for all he had done to the Constitution and the nation.
Seems like a very good team.They seem like very dedicated professionals