IHC bars special court from announcing Musharraf ruling

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday barred a special court from announcing its judgement in the high treason case against former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.

The Ministry of Interior as well as Musharraf, through his counsel, had moved the IHC with the request to stop the special court from announcing its verdict on November 28. The special court on November 19 had reserved its judgement in the high treason case whereas the Ministry of Interior had requested the IHC to restrain the special court from announcing its ruling as all the legal formalities were not fulfilled during the proceedings.

A three-member bench, headed by IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah along with Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani, heard the petition. At the outset of the hearing, the CJ asked about the notification regarding formulation of special court in this regard from Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti and complete record from Law Secretary Muhammad Khashih-ur-Rehman. Bhatti affirmed the notification copy was available with the record and pleaded that the special court had not completed the legal procedure, adding final arguments were still pending in the case.

The court after listening to the parties directed the federal government for the deployment of prosecutor till December 5.The court also directed the special court for announcing its verdict after listening to the parties and after completion of all the legal formalities.