ISLAMABAD: Pervez Musharraf’s vigorous efforts to implicate top civil and military leaders of 2007 including former army chief Ashfaque Pervez Kayani in the high treason case finally stood nailed as the Supreme Court ruled that only the former dictator would be tried on the charge.
The apex court also settled an important question: a fresh investigation into the treason charge by associating any person with it lies within the prerogative of the federal government and the special court or the Islamabad High Court (IHC) could not name any individual to be implicated in any such probe.
All along, the federal government has repeatedly held the view, also expressed in its original complaint filed with the special court, that it was only Musharraf and nobody else, who violated the Constitution by proclaiming emergency.
In his statement recorded to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Musharraf claimed that he had committed the constitutional transgression by imposing emergency on November 3, 2007 on the advice of others, including the then top civilian and military leadership. He had named Kayani but had nothing concrete to prove his assertion. He insisted that in addition to Kayani, he had also consulted the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before the strike.
Musharraf’s statement, it was said, reflected the strategy of his legal team, which right from the beginning of the treason trial wanted to drag all and sundry in the extra-constitutional step, which was taken to remove the Supreme Court judges. However, the 15-month long litigation about associating Shaukat Aziz, Abdul Hameed Dogar and Zahid Hamid as abettors in the treason charge has now come to an end. Every one of them denied any role in the imposition of emergency by Musharraf.
Meanwhile, the proceedings of the special court are at a standstill for six weeks as the federal government is yet to seek a formal notification from President Mamnoon Hussain for the appointment of Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel as the head of the tribunal. “The presidency has not received any recommendation from the government for issuance of a notification about induction of the PHC chief in the special court,” an informed source told The News.
On January 9, the federal government decided to induct Justice Miankhel as the chief of the special court. On December 17 last, the government approached the chief justice of Pakistan under the Criminal Law Amendment (Special Courts) Act of 1976 and sought recommendation from amongst the high court chief justices to revive the special tribunal by filling the vacancy, which occurred after the elevation of Justice Faisal Arab to the Supreme Court.
The absence of the formal presidential notification completing the special court showed a lack of interest of the government in vigorously pursuing the treason case. However, all decks are now cleared by the apex court to resume normal hearing of the complaint by the special court.
Friday’s judgment was apparently conscious of the delay in trial by special court when it said that the tribunal is expected to proceed with Musharraf’s trial “with all convenient dispatch and without any unnecessary delay.”
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court expressed surprise over discontinuation of the treason trial by the tribunal and inquired about any legal provision which allowed the trial court to stay its hearings till the outcome of the findings of reinvestigation of the case. “It is the job of the trial court to continue with the proceedings instead of waiting for the reinvestigation,” Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who headed the three-member bench, remarked.
Apart from Dogar, who had challenged his impending investigation by the FIA as ordered by the special court as a collaborator in the treason case, Shaukat Aziz and Zahid Hamid were equal beneficiaries of the instant verdict because they have also been exonerated from such probe.
It was held that all references to Dogar, Shaukat Aziz and Zahid Hamid in the orders passed by the special court and the IHC on November 27, 2015 and Dec 9, 2015 respectively as suspects to be associated with any fresh investigation into the high treason offence allegedly committed by Musharraf are set aside. In the previous hearing of the treason case on December 17, the FIA had sought 30 days to complete the reinvestigation of Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and Dogar. But this process is no more required in the wake of the apex court judgment. The next hearing had been fixed for January 13. Since then, no proceedings had been held as the tribunal has been incomplete.