ISLAMABAD:
Former law minister Zahid Hamid has challenged the decision of the special court trying former president Pervez Musharraf for treason to include his name among the accused in the case.
The ex-minister filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday objecting to the special court’s directives issued on November 21. The special court, while accepting Musharraf’s plea, had ordered the federal government to include the names of Zahid, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as the co-accused in the treason case.
Zahid, in his plea, contended that the special court was constituted to try Musharraf on the request of the federal government and that it can not try other people. He argued that under section 342 of Criminal Procedure Code, the accused has no right to ask for a joint trial of the co-accused as it is the right of the prosecution to decide who to prosecute.
The former minister added that the entire application filed by Musharraf was based on assumptions as there was no solid evidence on record that any other person had collaborated, aided or abetted Musharraf in imposing the state of emergency in 2007. Zahid’s plea further stated that the special court had passed the order without knowing the fact that he had stopped working as law minister on December 15, 2007.
Justice Athar Minallah will take up Zahid’s petition on Monday. The IHC registrar, however, has raised objections against Zahid’s plea, stating that the proper appellate forum for such an application is the Supreme Court.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2014.
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Talk about having lack of moral fortitute. Zahid Hamid was the law minister at the time of the emergency so he should admit it and fight the treason case now instead of running from it. All the charges PMLN functionaries were slopping on Musharraf now apply to their man as well. Let's not have double standards. Moreover, did Nawaz Sharif not know this day will come when he embarked on charging Musharraf alone? How narrow sighted PMLN leadership is.