High treason case: ISI confirms threat to Musharraf’s life

Lawyer says former president cannot appear at court hearing today.

ISLAMABAD:

A premier intelligence outfit on Thursday confirmed the seriousness of the threats that former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s lawyers claim he is facing.

A representative of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) said that the spy agency had intercepted a phone call on Wednesday night which confirmed that Musharraf was susceptible to attack.

In compliance with the special court’s order of March 12, an ISI representative and the interior ministry’s joint secretary gave an in-camera briefing to the three-judge bench at Sindh House. They cautioned that there was a clear and present danger from militants who were looking to target Musharraf’s convoy somewhere along the route between the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) and the court’s premises.

Sources told The Express Tribune that “an official informed the judges about phone calls, reports and technical analysis which revealed that al Qaeda is planning to target Musharraf”.

The judges were also informed that terrorists apprehended earlier provided the ISI with information about this plan. The agency is working on these leads, sources said.

Meanwhile, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab has maintained its order regarding the appearance of Pervez Musharraf before it to indict him in the high treason case. Sources close to Musharraf said the possibility of the former president appearing before the court today was slim. Musharraf summoned a special meeting of his legal team on Thursday at the AFIC to devise a strategy regarding his appearance in court under the current circumstances. A meeting was concurrently held at the interior ministry to discuss the security situation in this case, sources added.



“We fail to understand why the court is in hurry to indict our client, even after security agencies have admitted that he is facing a serious security threat from within and outside,” Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, an active member of Musharraf’s legal team, told The Express Tribune. He pointed out that two murder attempts had been made on his client in the past and the possibility of another attack could not be ruled out.

Hussain remarked that the prosecution has adopted a policy of ‘pick and choose’ by targeting Musharraf and sparing other collaborators in the November 3, 2007, state of emergency and provisional constitution order. Earlier, Musharraf’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan submitted that he could not be present in court as he was unwell due to food poisoning following a query by the bench. He also said it was not possible to appear in court today (Friday). Subsequently, Justice Faisal said the court could not force a lawyer to argue his case. The bench decided to continue proceedings today.

Regarding the dissenting note by the FIA’s Hussain Asghar over the involvement of civil and military officials in the high treason case, the head of the prosecution team Akram Sheikh claimed that he has yet to see the note in the report of the inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2014.