War of words: Pervez Musharraf’s defence team claims prosecutor is ‘biased’

Sheikh accuses defence team of threatening him.

ISLAMABAD:

The special court has reserved its decision on the appointment of prosecutor Akram Sheikh in the high treason case against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday.

While the former president’s legal team alleged that Sheikh is biased, the lawyer fought back, accusing the defence of publicly vilifying him and threatening him. “One of the members of Musharraf’s team threatened to chop me into pieces while cutting my tongue,” Sheikh told the three-judge bench, led by Justice Faisal Arab.

Musharraf’s lawyer Anwar Mansoor said that the notification of the prosecutor was issued by the law ministry in violation of legal norms. He also presented statements made by Sheikh in which he had expressed his view regarding the Musharraf case on television talk shows.

Mansoor alleged that the prosecutor is biased and added that Sheikh has not only claimed that the trial can be concluded in 10 to 15 days but also that Musharraf could face the death penalty. The lawyer also asked why acquittal had been ruled out as one of the options.

In his defence, Sheikh said he had conducted more than 300 murder trials in his career and that, as a professional lawyer, he believes the trial could be concluded within eight to ten days. He asked the court to watch the footage from television interviews and remove him from prosecution if it deems him to be biased.

He said prior to the trial, the FIA wrote a letter to the law ministry proposing four lawyers’ names. Sheikh said he was neither personally loyal to Nawaz Sharif nor was he an enemy of Musharraf’s and there was no legal or constitutional lacuna regarding his appointment as prosecutor in the case. He added that any question of bias is premature as the trial has not even commenced.

The court will resume the hearing today (Thursday) to hear the defence team’s application for a fair trial. The special court has set March 31 as the day to indict Musahrraf. The former president was asked to appear voluntarily or face arrest by the Islamabad police chief.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2014.