Supreme Court denies giving Pervez Musharraf an opportunity of hearing

As the former president Pervez Musharraf had been declared as a proclaimed offender by a lower court, the Supreme Court denied giving an opportunity of hearing to him in a case regarding the registration of second FIR in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case against him and 12 others.

During the hearing, the court asked the former military ruler to surrender before the court, which had issued arrest warrants for him in 2011.

A three-judge bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez issued directives to the respondents to file their replies by April 16.

Chaudhry Azhar, the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) prosecutor, told the court at the outset of the hearing that Musharraf did not furnish any reply despite having received the summons.

In his view, his arrest warrants were issued and he was declared an absconder by an anti-terrorism court due to his continuous nonappearance. The FIA had contacted Interpol for his apprehension, he added.

During the course of hearing, Justice Tariq Parvez commented that the apex court had also issued summons for Musharraf on the FIA’s application which, according to reports, had already been received by him.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry noted that being an absconder, Musharraf should hand himself over to the law. He argued that no one was taking the case seriously, as most of the respondents in the case neither furnished their replies nor did they turn up.

At the same time, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain remarked that the proclaimed-offender should first surrender before the court according to law and regulations.

In the meantime, Raja Aamir Abbas, counsel for Rehman Malik, sought time for submitting a reply, which the court allowed and directed him to file the reply until April 16.

Advocate Sheharyar Khan informed the court that he was not appearing as a counsel for Musharraf, rather he was appearing on the court’s notice.

The 12 respondents in the case are: former president Pervez Musharraf, former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, former law minister Babar Awan, the then acting interior minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz, former director general of Intelligence Bureau, Ijaz Hussain Shah, former interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah, the then Interior Ministry’s spokesman Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema, the then Rawalpindi DCO Irfan Elahi, former Rawalpindi SSP Saud Aziz and SPs Khurram Shehzad, and Yasin Farooq.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Apr 10 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.