Plea filed to get Army House vacated from Musharraf

OUR STAFF REPORTER



LAHORE - A constitutional petition has been filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to seek vacation of the Army House, Rawalpindi, from former Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Pervez Musharraf.

The petition has been filed by Mian Jamil Akhtar of Save Judiciary Committee, through Barrister Dr Farooq Hassan advocate, invoking Articles 2, 2(a), 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution. He has pleaded for directing the federal govt to get the Army House vacated from Gen (r) Pervez and let the new Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani occupy it as his residence under the law.

The petitioner says, Gen Musharraf stands retired as COAS with effect from November 15 last when he was also holding the office of the President of the country. And now the Army House, under the law, cannot be used by a retired army chief but by the one who is incumbent in the office. The petitioner says, General Kiyani being Army Chief at present has every right to reside in the Army House as such, it needs to be vacated from the former COAS.

According to him, the matter of vacating the Army House is more important in view of the present constitutional position in the country and it is important that all the applicable rules and norms of property and conventions of good governance be adhered to by the executive and Musharraf.

The petitioner says the eviction of Army House from the respondent is also necessary for the reason, that forces opposed to democracy and supremacy of the Constitution are allegedly active therein whereof good name of the armed forces is being maligned.

Justifying his locus standi, the petitioner says, he as a lawyer, has been active over more than one year against the authoritarian policies of the respondent and wished to establish rule of law through an independent judiciary, and in that process lawyers also confronted with the 'fascist forces' in the country. He says as a result of the struggle of lawyers and others, true democratic forces came into power through last elections wherein the party supporting Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf was trounced. The petitioner has also mentioned the events from October 1999 to-date, which it alleged had done disservice to the nation in a situation when dictatorship worldwide was being looked down upon.