Musharraf cannot be termed man of sound character: SHC

KARACHI: Former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharaf was serving as chief of army staff when he held the Constitution in abeyance and he could not be termed as a man of sound character as he lacked qualification to be elected as a member of the Majlis-e-Shura (Parliament), a full bench of the Sindh High Court held on Muaharaf’s petition in which he challenged rejection of his nomination papers in May 2013 polls.
“The person who had played with the judicial system and abrogated the Constitution could not be termed as righteous,” the SHC’s full bench observed in a detailed judgment recently issued by the court.
The full bench on April 18, 2013 through its short order had dismissed the petition filed by the former president against rejection of his nomination papers from National Assembly constituency NA-250 Karachi.
The Election Tribunal had on April 15, 2013 rejected the appeal of Pervez Musharraf against the decision of Returning Officer observing that Musharraf could not be regarded as “Ameen” within the meaning of Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution following Supreme Court’s declaration against him for his role as being Chief of Army Staff on imposition of Provisional Constitutional Order in November 2007.
Delivering a detailed judgment on Musharraf’s petition, full bench of SHC observed that it was admitted position that former president to be tried under treason charges for abrogating the Constitution in November 2007.
The court observed that after imposition of PCO, former president insisted the judges of superior court to take oath under the PCO and when judges refused he confined them in house arrest and restrained them from performing their Constitutional duties which was not an ordinary act.
The court held that Musharraf’s act of imposition of emergency spread fear in the society, insecurity among the judicial officers along with the lawyers.
“This shameful act lowered the honour, prestige of the country in the comity of the nation,” the court observed adding that undoubtedly petitioner played havoc with the entire judicial system of the country and affected 180 million of Pakistan.
The court observed that finding of election tribunal in which it rejected the nomination papers of the Pervez Musharraf are elaborate and no illegality infirmity appeared in impugned judgment and does not require any interference and dismissed the petition.