The Supreme Court of Pakistan has summoned details from the Interior Secretary during hearing of five identical petitions seeking a treason trial against former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
The Supreme Court has asked the Interior Secretary to provide documentary evidence pertaining to what action was taken after the Senate resolution was passed. In its order the apex court stated that a petition seeking the formation of a lager bench to hear the case had been sent to Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and he would make a decision regarding this.
Earlier, the federation requested the Supreme Court for an extra week to submit a detailed reply in the case. The time was sought to answer questions pertaining to whether Article 6 applies to Musharraf and if he should be tried for treason.
Attorney General Irfan Qadir, during Wednesday’s proceedings, said that the current government is part of caretaker setup and its limited mandate is to conduct free and fair elections. He continued saying that it must be watched that any such action should not affect the fairness of the caretaker government.
On this, Justice Khilji Arif remarked that the court’s orders are not given due importance and that the caretaker government should have taken a serious note of the SC’s ruling in the case.
He continued saying that apparently it is the responsibility of the federation to register a lawsuit in this case.
Musharraf's lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri said that judges are also included among those who supported Musharraf. Replying to this, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said that they are ready if federation wants to initiate trial against them.
Earlier on Tuesday, Interior Minister Malik Habib said that as per the judgments of the superior judiciary, Musharraf had subverted the Constitution, and resolved that the interior ministry would proceed against Musharraf as per the court orders and in consultation with the law ministry.
In a written reply submitted by the Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir, on behalf of the Federal government before a two-member bench of the apex-court hearing the Musharraf treason case, the government said that it had yet to determine whether it would be proper to initiate proceedings in this case before the elections.
The government reply said that the foremost priority of the caretaker regime is to ensure free and fair elections.
“Whether lodging a case of high treason in the present circumstances would in any way adversely impact the impartiality as viewed by people of Pakistan in general and political parties in particular,” the federation posed a question before the apex court in its reply.
The government also argued that Ministry of Interior is preoccupied to provide security to thousands of candidates.
“Therefore it is requested that the case should be adjourned for a week as federation desired to determine whether it wants to lodge the case against Pervez Musharraf ahead of the upcoming elections.”
The Court had earlier sought a reply on Monday from the government over whether the former military ruler be tried under Article 6 of the constitution or not.