Appeal: Govt challenges Musharraf’s travel ban ruling

Supreme Court to hear the petition on June 16 .

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has challenged the decision of the Sindh High Court (SHC) to remove former president Pervez Musharraf’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL) in the Supreme Court.

The chief justice of Pakistan has formed a three-member bench – headed by Justice Saqib Nisar and including Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan – that will take up the appeal on Monday.

In its petition, the government has requested to suspend the SHC’s decision and asked the Supreme Court to stop the former military ruler from travelling abroad.

The federation held that Musharraf’s name was added to the ECL pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court and it is wrong to claim that there was no reason to restrict him from travelling abroad, as the SHC ruled, the government said.

Musharraf — who is involved in serious offences — has all the reasons not to come back to Pakistan once he leaves the country and his trial, which is at an advanced stage, would simply be brought to a standstill, it emphasised in the appeal.

Although the right to travel abroad is a fundamental right, the federal government can put reasonable restrictions for public interest, it submitted.

Musharraf stated that his primary ground for going abroad was to attend to his ailing mother. The federal government offered to fly in the respondent’s mother from UAE. But since the former military ruler was abusing the process of the court to get out of Pakistan and to avoid his trial, he did not accept the offer, the petition read.

On Thursday, the SHC had ordered the removal of Musharraf’s name from the ECL but had suspended this order for around two weeks, giving the federal government time to appeal against the decision before the Supreme Court. Following the high court’s order, Musharraf filed a petition in the SHC requesting permission to leave the country at the earliest to visit his mother.

The federal government’s petition stated, “It is further prayed that during the pendency of the instant petition, the impugned judgment may kindly be suspended and the name of the respondent may kindly continue to remain on the ECL and he may be restrained from going abroad without the permission of this honorable court.”

The former president is involved in 12 cases and faces treason charges for subverting and circumventing the constitution by imposing emergency on November 3, 2007. The federal government had placed his name on the ECL, stating that he might try to abscond.

Musharraf’s petition to modify ECL decision

Separately, in Karachi, an SHC division bench requested its Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar on Saturday to constitute a special bench for hearing Musharraf’s application seeking modification of the bench’s order passed in the ECL case.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar – who headed the bench that had, on Thursday, annulled the travel ban on the retired general – also directed the office to inform the members of the newly constituted bench at the earliest, so that they could take up the plea on June 16.

Justice Mazhar and his companion Justice Shahnawaz Tariq are currently on vacation, therefore, they have sought the constitution of new bench to decide the matter.


Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.