LHC full bench takes up Musharraf’s pleas today

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench is set to hear on Thursday (today) three civil miscellaneous applications by convicted former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf against multiple actions against him including in high treason case by a special court, formation of the trial court and filing of the complaint by the then government.

Earlier, the registrar office had returned these applications due to unavailability of the full bench during winter vacation. A legal panel comprising Khwaja Ahmad Tariq Rahim and Azhar Siddique filed the applications again on Wednesday. The bench seized with the whole matter comprises Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Chaudhry Masood Jahangir.

The special court of Islamabad announced its verdict on Dec 17 and handed down death penalty to Musharraf with a two to one majority. In the civil miscellaneous applications, Musharraf asked the LHC to set aside the special court’s verdict for being illegal, without jurisdiction, unconstitutional, in violation of Articles 10-A, 4, 5, 10 and 10-A of the Constitution. He pleads that the impugned verdict be suspended till decision of the main petition and directions be issued to the federal government to produce complete record of the special court.

He also specifically assailed paragraph 66 of the special court’s verdict wherein court’s president Justice Waqar Seth in his minority view said, “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for three days.”