Special court hearing: Arrest warrant against law, claims Musharraf’s counsel

Former president’s legal team submits plea, citing Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 1977.

ISLAMABAD:

Lawyers for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf submitted an application in the special court on Thursday, arguing that the bailable arrest warrant issued against him is against the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 1977.

The application, submitted by the legal team headed by Sharifuddin Pirzada, stated that to avoid perpetuation of illegality, the process regarding the issuance of arrest warrant be withdrawn.



It also said that the bench had issued the January 31 order regarding the issuance of applicant’s arrest warrant, seemingly under section 76 Cr.PC.

Under section 76 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), if such a person executes a bond with sufficient securities for his attendance, it shall state the number of sureties, the amount in which they and the person for whose arrest warrant is issued are bound and the time at which he must attend court.

The application objected that the January 31 order was not announced in the open court and the process regarding the issuance of the warrant is also against the law, as laid down in section 4 of the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 1977.

“The impugned order is; therefore, per incuriam and the proceedings are coram non judice. The answering respondent, however, out of respect of the court has furnished the bonds, of course, under protest. Needless to add the respondent is under no legal obligation to comply with an order ex-facie not warranted by law,” it is further submitted.



Though Musharraf’s lawyer Ahmad Raza Kasuri claims that the Musharraf camp will “surprise the nation” today (Friday) as regards the appearance of their client before the special court, another team member claims that there is a slim chance that the former army man will appear, therefore, they have already prepared a three-page application, seeking his dispensation from the court.

Talking to The Express Tribune, he stated that they will submit this application today and request the special bench to suspend its January 31 order till its decisions regarding their pending applications about constitution of the special court, appointment of prosecutor and others.

The legal team member says that they would inform the special court that its January 31 and January 10 orders have already been challenged in the Supreme Court.

He said that the legal team members were present in the SC on Thursday and also moved an application regarding the early hearing of their petitions but these were not entertained by the SC’s registrar office because numbers were not allotted to the petitions.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2014.