CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: PROF. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Default / Miscellaneous

Three-member bench to try Musharraf for treason

Published: 21 Nov 2013 - 08:34 am | Last Updated: 28 Jan 2022 - 04:30 pm

Islamabad: The government has formed a judicial commission to try former president Pervez Musharraf.

The names of three judges, including a woman, have been approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for a special court that will try Musharraf, Dawn News said yesterday. The court will seat in Islamabad. 

On Monday, the law secretary had sent a one-page letter to the Supreme Court registrar to place the matter before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for nominating three high court judges for the special court to try Musharraf under treason charges for suspending the constitution while proclaiming a state of emergency on November 3, 2007.

He had been held under house arrest for months after he returned from Dubai and was freed earlier this month on bail in four cases. But he is still barred from leaving the country.

The prosecution will depend on strong documentary evidence, including the gazette notifications of six extra-constitutional orders relating to a state of emergency he issued on and after November 3, 2007.

Sources said the prosecution would not only rely on official or private witnesses but also on documentary evidence. 

They said six documents, each conveying the extra-constitutional order by Musharraf, would be produced before the special court as concrete evidence to get the dictator punished under Article 6 of the Constitution. 

The documents include Proclamation of Emergency Order of 2007 issued by Musharraf as the chief of the army staff on November 3, 2007; the Provisional Constitution Order No 1 of 2007 issued on the same date in the same capacity (army chief), among others. 

AGENCIES