Musharraf treason case: Information minister defends trial timing

Insists it is not a bid to divert public attention.

ISLAMABAD:

The process to prosecute ex-president Pervez Musharraf for abrogating the Constitution has started at an “appropriate time,” Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid said on Tuesday.

“Steps regarding the trial against former president Musharraf have been taken at appropriate time,” he said.

The opposition questioning the timing of invoking Article 6 against Musharraf had called the move ‘a bid to divert public attention from the recent clashes in Rawalpindi and Multan’.

Addressing the media after a seminar on ‘Access to Information’, the minister defended the government’s move of taking up the issue, saying Musharraf would have fled the country had the government not initiated the process.

Regarding nominations of other Musharraf aides‚ who were part of his conspiracy‚ the information minister said that the judiciary will chart its course for future proceedings. “The court and the law will define its own course,” he added.

While talking about the Rawalpindi incident, Rashid praised the role of print and electronic media during the entire episode, saying they reported sensibly due to which the nation averted a major calamity.

He said the whole nation acknowledged that the media had acted very responsibly and kept the national interest supreme.

While addressing the seminar, the minister said the government was committed to bring a comprehensive ‘right to information’ act in order to ensure easy public access to information.

While talking about the process over the issue in the parliament, he said that Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting has unanimously passed the Access to Information Bill 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2013.