Former Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar on Wednesday challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the verdict issued by a special court on November 21 during the hearing of a treason case against former president General Pervez Musharraf (Retd).
After former Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, Abdul Hameed Dogar also challenged the special court verdict in which the court directed the government to include former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, ex-federal minister Zahid Hamid and former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as co-accused in the treason case against Musharraf. It is the third petition in a matter as earlier former president high court bar association (HCBA) Rawalpindi Taufiq Asif Advocate and former federal minister Zahid Hamid moved the court against the special court's verdict.
The Registrar's Office of Islamabad High Court (IHC) has raised similar objections over the Dogar's petition which it raised on Hamid 's and Asif's petitions, stating that the court could not hear any petition filed against the special court proceedings and a proper appellate forum for such a petition is the Supreme Court. However, the petition was accepted for hearing along with the registrar office's objections before a single-member bench headed by Justice Athar Minallah.
The ex-CJP filed the petition through his counsel Iftikhar Gillani challenging the order of special court that included his name as well among other three co-accused persons in the treason case against the former president. Referring to the decision of Supreme Court on the petition of Singh High Court Bar Association, the Dogar stated that the apex court in the said case had declared PCO unconstitutional and 100 judges had to go home as a result but in its judgement it never mentioned that the petitioner or other PCO judges had any role in the imposition of November 3 emergency.
He maintained that he had no role in the imposition of November 03 emergency for which Musharraf is facing a treason case. Dogar added that former Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed had challenged Musharraf's election as President in uniform before the court and through an application on November 02, 2007 Justice Wajih had expressed his apprehension that martial law or emergency could be imposed in the country.
Dogar maintained that on the following day, Musharraf imposed emergency and ceased offices of the judges and administered new oath of office to the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. The petitioner further said that he and the other judges including Nawaz Abbasi, Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, M. Javed Buttar and Syed Saeed Ashad took oath on November 3.
He said that at no point of time did Supreme Court say that he had any role in imposition of emergency but the special court has assumed a suo motu jurisdiction, which is not conferred on it, by adding the name of petitioner as a co-accused to the case. The petitioner said the order of special court is against the spirit of Article 10-A of the Constitution. He prayed before the court to set aside the November 21 order of the special court. It is pertinent to mention that Justice Athar Minallah of the IHC has conducted the hearing in the previous two petitions and sought opinion from the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) regarding maintainability of the petitions.
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