Pervez Musharraf. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
Days after the government announced it would try General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason, the former military ruler appealed to the Supreme Court on Saturday to lift the restriction barring him from contesting general elections.
Analysts interpret the move as a strong sign that Musharraf is ready to face every single case against him as he challenged the Peshawar High Court (PHC) verdict barring him from contesting elections.
The former president filed a petition seeking restoration of returning officer’s order which allowed him to contest general elections from Chitral.
A four-member bench headed by the PHC chief justice had dismissed Musharraf’s appeal against rejection of his nomination papers by returning officer on April 16 filed for NA-32 Chitral seat and had placed a lifetime ban on him.
In its ruling the court said that Musharraf had twice violated the constitution and detained judges of superior judiciary, so he could not be allowed to contest the polls.
On Saturday, the former president filed a petition through his counsel Malik Qamar Afzal and raised legal and constitutional issues regarding the jurisdiction and the judicial authority of the PHC to disqualify him.
The petition has nominated Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as respondent in the case. In his petition the former president has taken the plea that the PHC decision to bar him from contesting election was a violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1949 and provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The petition said reliance on the judgment passed in absentia was an illegal exercise of the courts’ jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, three lawyers refused to record statement at Pervez Musharraf’s Chak Shahzad farmhouse that was declared as a sub-jail by the court in judges’ detention case.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2013.
COMMENTS (5)
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Thousands of Afghan terrorists managed to obtain Pakistani passports and travelled to and often settled in the West on assylum there. Thosee who could not have disguised themselves and are playing their dirty games in Pakistan and doing 'trade' like heroin and arms dealings and terrorism and those who could travel out under the cover of passports and later taking refuge in the countries of the West are he very same people now who never miss a chance to critise and condemn Pakistan and its hardships which they caused to begin with.
Honourable PHC issued a verdict, which purportedly does not meet the stringent criteria of justice. It was an indictment rather a decision and did not suit the integrity and stature of a superior court. This might reflect personal grudge. The court should have given due weightage to the fact that the former President had not been convicted matters cited in the order and in some cases he was not being even tried.
@naeem khan Manattan,Ks:
I wonder you live in a developed country but talking like an ignorant village of Pakistan. If you look yourself deep inside you, you will find what you are talking. Please do research and write comments.
"PHC decision to bar him from contesting election was a violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1949 and provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan." The audacity of this man, now he is mocking the judiciary, what happened to the Declaration of Human Rights 1949 when he was the dictator of the country, what about the rights of those who disappeared and some of them sent to Getmo, what did he do to the constitution in 1999 and 2007, there is no limit to the hypocrisy of this man. I believe he must face the music now for what he done to the nation and the country.