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Justice Aamir Farooq announced the decision while suspending the non-bailable arrant warrants of the former president. The court has directed the trial court hearing the murder case to decide Musharraf’s exemption plea again following the submission of his medical report.
On June 19, the trial court had issued arrest warrants for Musharraf while rejecting his exemption plea, and directed the local police to produce the former military ruler on July 24. Musharraf had challenged the arrest warrants and maintained in his petition that the trial court did not adopt procedure as envisaged under the law, acted hastily and decided the matter arbitrarily hence the impugned order is liable to be set aside. On July 27, the IHC bench had reserved its judgment.
The counsel for Musharraf, Malik Tahir Mahmood, had stated that Musharraf was in Karachi where a medical board constituted upon the directions of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Quetta examined him and advised not to travel due to illness. Subsequently, the ATC Quetta exempted Musharraf from appearance.
The counsel had informed the court that the medical report was also presented before the special bench, which is conducting proceedings under Article 6 of the Constitution against Musharraf, and the same was allowed. He had argued that even the Islamabad ATC exempted him on the basis of the same report. Mahmood had also requested the court to set aside the non-bailable warrants.
The Aabpara Police had registered an FIR against Musharraf in 2013 for his alleged role in the murder of Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and his mother during the Lal Masjid operation in July 2007.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2015.
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