Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday adjourned till May 21 (tomorrow) the hearing of a petition filed by General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) against restrictions on his travel abroad. A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar partly heard the arguments of Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) regarding maintainability of the petition with regard to jurisdiction of SHC to hear the case.
The AGP argued that high court had no territorial jurisdiction to hear the matter as the name of the former military ruler was placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) on the orders of Supreme Court. It was stated that the former President should approach the apex court to get his name withdrawn from ECL.
Earlier, Musharraf's counsel Farogh Nasim said that the order regarding placing Musharraf's name on ECL was against the principles of natural justice as no show-cause notice, as required by the laaw, was issued to his client. He said that on April 8, 2013, the Supreme Court had issued directions to the federal government for placing the name of petitioner on ECL but later, the final order of the apex court did not mention or maintain the condition of ECL.
Farogh was of the view that trial court was competent to impose any restriction on the movement of petitioner. Since the court had not barred the petitioner from travelling out of country, any restriction by government on his movement was a sheer violation of the fundamental rights, he added. He argued that there had been cases against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in accountability courts but she was allowed to travel abroad. He said that Musharraf wanted to visit his ailing mother in Dubai and also get medical treatment for spine problem as a private medical board had confirmed that he had a fracture in vertebra.
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