A Special Court trying former army chief and Pre-sident Pervez Musharraf for treason on Tuesday turned down the defence plea to make the consultative summary that was sent to Musharraf for the imposition of emergency on November 3 a part of the record of proceedings. A three-member bench of Justice Faisal Arab resumed the hearing of this case and refused to make the summary a part of the record of proceedings at this point in time.
At the outset of hearing, Barrister Faroogh Nasim, the counsel for Musharraf, submitted a copy of a consultative summary purportedly sent by the then Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, to the then President Pervez Musharraf, asking the latter to impose emergency in the country.
Prosecutor Mohammad Akram Sheikh questioned the authenticity of the summary maintaining that no document was prepared by anyone on the matter; however, defence counsel claimed that facts relating to the summary were concealed. Nasim contended that a copy of the summary was uploaded on the internet and urged the court to issue a notice to Aziz for verification of that document. He further requested that a commission could be formed to seek relevant information from Aziz in London in the current matter.
During proceedings, the defence counsel cross-examined prosecution witness Maqsoodul Hasan, Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), who apprised the court that no evidence was collected on the involvement of any institution in the emergency imposed on November 3, 2007.
He further submitted that the FIA investigation team had inspected all the relevant people including two governors but no evidence could be found against anybody except Musharraf. The defence counsel queried as to why the prosecution proposed investigation in the first place if there was no evidence against others in the current matter. Maqsoodul Hasan said that FIA could not have access to the available records despite it the fact made contacts with the Ministry of Defence; therefore the FIA had sought to investigate the involvement of others. The bench adjourned the hearing of case for Wednesday (today).
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