Special Court's registrar: High courts asked to make nominations

The Ministry of Law and Justice has written letters to high courts for nomination of a suitable person to be appointed as registrar of special court that has been set up to try former president General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) for high treason.
Earlier, the law ministry appointed registrar Federal Shariat Court as registrar of the special court but he has declined the assigned duty for some 'personal reasons.' The special court will hear the case in the Federal Shariat Court in Islamabad. Former Justice Sardar Raza Khan, special secretary law, told Business Recorder on Tuesday that the registrar Federal Shariat Court did not have knowledge of legal issues, "therefore, he has regretted to continue as registrar of the special court."
He said the registrar for the special court should be well-versed with the law so that he could deal with legal issues, besides day to day administrative matters. "We have written to different high courts for registrar of the special court and hopefully the matter would be settled in the next couple of days," he said.
The federal government has decided to try General Musharraf for imposition of emergency rule and suspending the constitution on November 3, 2007. The Prime Minister's Office issued a notification last week about the constitution of the three-member special court for trial of General Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution.
The three-member court comprises Justice Faisal Arab of Sindh High Court, Justice Tahira Safdar of Balochistan High Court and Justice Yawar Ali of Lahore High Court. Being the senior most judge in the panel, Justice Faisal Arab will head the special court. Justice Khan said that proceedings of the treason trial against General Musharraf would formally start after submission of the challan (charge sheet) by the prosecution. "It is responsibility of the prosecution team and federal interior ministry to prepare case against General Musharraf," he said.
To a question, he said the trial court is not time-bound. "No court can be time-barred in any case. The special court can take one day or even a year to record evidence in the case," he said, adding the law ministry would continue facilitating the special court to carry out its proceedings smoothly. The law ministry has already appointed a renowned lawyer Akram Sheikh as special prosecutor in the treason case against General Musharraf. The formal initiation of the court proceedings in the case is likely in first week of December.