High treason case: IHC's restraining order challenged

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict barring the Special Court from announcing decision in high treason case against former army chief General Pervez Musharraf (retd) has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Taufiq Asif on Thursday filed a petition under Article 185(3) of Constitution against the IHC judgment dated 27-11-2019 and made Ministry of Interior, General Pervez Musharraf (retd), Special Court and the federation through secretary interior as respondents.

He questioned whether the IHC had jurisdiction to entertain writ petitions to examine proceedings pending before a Special Court comprising judges of the High Courts in view of bar under Section 12 of the Criminal Laws Amendment (Special Court) Act, 1976.

A two-member bench of IHC comprising Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani on November 27 passed retraining order, a day before the announcement of reserved judgment by the Special Court.

Taufiq further questioned whether the High Court has jurisdiction to assume the role of an appellate court. He also questioned the maintainability of the Interior Ministry's petition on grounds that it may have been filed "with ulterior motives."

It said there were attempts to "withdraw the case inter alia" on the grounds that the federal cabinet's approval was not taken at the time of the filing of the complaint against Musharraf.

The petitioner further argued that the IHC judgment is contrary to the Constitution and the law of Pakistan. The petition notes that the former army chief was also declared a proclaimed offender due to failure to appear before the Special Court. The petition prayed to the apex court to set aside the IHC verdict.

In its verdict, the high court ordered the federal government to notify a new prosecutor by December 5 and directed the Special Court to fix a date for "affording a reasonable opportunity of hearing" to the newly-notified prosecution team and Musharraf's counsel.

The bench observed that the Special Court was expected to "take into consideration" the grounds raised in an application filed by the former president seeking acquittal.

"The learned Special Court is expected to conclude the proceedings expeditiously having [regard] to the cardinal principles of a fair trial," said the short order.

The high court also allowed Musharraf's counsel Barrister Salman Safdar to assist the counsel appointed for the ex-president during the hearing.