Musharraf's plea accepted for hearing: PHC decision

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted for hearing former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf's appeal against Peshawar High Court verdict that imposed life time ban on him to contest election of national and provincial assemblies. A two-judge bench of Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan issued notice to the Attorney General for Pakistan and also referred the matter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for constituting a larger bench to hear the matter.
During the course of hearing, the bench observed that a larger bench would be constituted after Eid holidays to hear the case. Qamar Afzal, the counsel for Musharraf, contended that no person could be declared as disqualified for life-time to hold public office and gave the example of Nawaz Sharif's case in which his disqualification was declared null and void. He pleaded that there was no clause of life-time disqualification in the Constitution, adding that Peshawar High Court exceeded its jurisdiction while issuing the verdict in the instant matter.
Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan remarked that detention of judges was an open secret and it could not be ignored by the court to which Qamar Afzal said that investigation about judges' detention case was under process and so far there was no result of the case. He argued that no person could be declared guilty prior to completion of investigation.
It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar High Court PHC had dismissed Musharraf's appeal against his disqualification from NA-32 Chitral and placed a lifetime ban on him for contesting elections. A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan heard Musharraf's petition against the decision of the election tribunal, disqualifying him from contesting polls.
During hearing, the Peshawar High Court remarked that Musharraf could not be allowed to contest elections as he had abrogated the constitution twice and confined the judges in their homes. The Peshawar High Court (PHC) in April this year placed a lifetime ban on the former military ruler for contesting elections. In his appeal, Musharraf's lawyer prayed that there was no clause in the constitution regarding life ban and the PHC exceeded its powers by banning him for life from holding any public office.