Time barred: SC refuses 1999 coup verdict review

ISLAMABAD: On the ground of being time barred, the Supreme Court has rejected PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah’s plea to review the 15-year-old judgment of the top court that validated the October 12, 1999 coup by General Pervez Musharraf. A three-judge bench observed that besides being time barred, the case has already been revisited in the July 31, 2009 verdict; therefore, there is no need to review it. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that the Zafar Ali Shah case judgment has already been revisited in the July 31, 2009 verdict, therefore, there is no need to review it. Another member of the bench, Justice Ejaz Afzal, remarked if they accept his petition then the court would have to hear the Nusrat Bhutto case again. Shah informed the court that he had filed the review petition against the October 1999 martial law in the public interest and wanted judgment passed in that case be reversed. However, Justice Saqib said his petition is time barred by 3,334 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.