Musharraf’s seeks full bench for high treason proceedings

Former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Saturday requested the Supreme Court to form a full bench to hear the treason case against him.

Five petitions, seeing high treason proceedings, have been filed in the apex court.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain is hearing the treason case against Musharraf for imposing the state of emergency in 2007.

Musharraf made the request in his written reply to the Supreme Court in the case against him under Article 6 of the Constitution.

The reply, submitted by Musharraf’s counsel, Ahmad Raza Kasuri, requested the court to constitute a full bench to hear the case. He said that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should be not included in the bench.

The reply further said that the case involved a number of constitutional and legal complications and that the former military president had taken the step of imposing the November 3, 2007 emergency in the light of previous court rulings.

The response said the November 3 emergency had also been validated by a bench of the Supreme Court.

The two-member bench also ordered the Interior Ministry to put Musharraf’s name on the Exit Control List so he could not go abroad.

Earlier the petitioners requested the court to issue detention order of Pervez Musharraf so he could not go abroad in view of the possible trial. However the court did not entertain the request.

Musharraf is also facing other legal cases, including the 2006 killing of Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, denied all charges and said he will defend himself in courts. He had resigned in August 2008 to avoid impeachment by the parliament and then went into exile.

He returned to Pakistan last month after over four-and-half year self exile in Britain and the UAE. He is now taking part in the parliamentary elections and also plans campaign for his All Pakistan Muslim League party.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Apr 13 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. 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.