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  • May 15th, 2014
  • Comments Off on Imposition of Emergency: Prime Minister, governors not consulted, court told
A Special Court trying former army chief and President Pervez Musharraf in a high treason case on Wednesday observed that Secretary Interior, the complainant in the case, should appear before the court and record his statement; otherwise his complaint would stand vitiated. A three-member Special Court led by Justice Faisal Arab, resumed the hearing of the matter in response to the federation's complaint through which it had sought initiation of a high treason case against Musharraf.

In pursuance of court's earlier orders of May 8, Prosecutor Mohammad Akram Sheikh submitted a 237-page report containing statements of 24 witnesses, including those of the then Punjab and Sindh Governors Khalid Maqbool and Isharatul Ibad, respectively, claiming that the then Prime Minister and the then Governors were not consulted prior to the proclamation of emergency on November 3, 2007.

According to the report, former Secretary Cabinet Division Masood Alam in his statement said that no cabinet meeting was held in relation to imposition of emergency. The then Attorney General for Pakistan, Malik Qayyum, stated that Musharaf had not consulted him with respect to imposing emergency but added that senior lawyers Sharifuddin Pirzada and Ahmed Raza Kasuri were close to the then President.

The prosecutor provided copies of the inquiry and investigation report conducted by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on actions purportedly taken by Musharaf on November 3, 2007. Justice Faisal Arab remarked that as per legal requirement, Secretary Interior Shahid Khan, being the complainant in the current case, should appear first before the court and record his statement; otherwise his complaint would stand vitiated.

The prosecutor submitted that complainant Secretary Interior would appear before the court on May 22 and urged the court to summon all the witnesses and record their statements. Justice Faisal Arab ruled that first they would issue notice to the defence and later to witnesses to appear before the court before the adjourned the hearing of case till May 22.

Witnesses include Siraj Ahmed, Khalid Rasool, Directors FIA, Muhammad Khalid Qurashi, Additional Director General FIA and head of JIT, Maqsood ul Hassan, Director FIA and member JIT, Hussain Asghar, Director FIA and member JIT, Taj Umar Khan, Deputy Solicitor, Ministry of Law, Talib Hussain from Pakistan Television Corporation, Kaleem Ahmed Shahzad, Section Officer, Cabinet Division, Islamabad, Najaf Kuli Mirza, Director FIA, Karachi and Muhammad Yousaf, SSP Additional Director, FIA, Islamabad. While talking to media, Faisal Hussain Chaudhry, one of the counsel for Musharraf stated that not releasing a voluminous investigation report reflected government's mala fide intent; and added that in spite of the FIA recommendations to incriminate all the facilitators of November 3, 2007 act, the government had chosen to try only Musharaf. Chaudhary stated that he would analyse the material.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014


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