Top Pakistani court moved against former military dictator

ISLAMABAD: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, praying for registering an FIR against former president Pervez Musharraf for abrogating and subverting the Constitution, causing an irremediable damage to the independence of judiciary.

It was further prayed that Musharraf’s name be put on the Exit Control List (ECL) till the conclusion of his trial. The petition was filed by Fazal Elahi Siddiqui, advocate, under Article 184(3) of the Constitution read with Article 6 of the Constitution and also Section 2 of the High Treason Act, No LXVIII, titled the High Treason Punishment Act, 1973.

The petitioner has made 49 people respondents in the petition, including General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, President Asif Ali Zardari, the chief of the Army staff, the General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi, former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, judges of the Supreme Court, the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court, the Balochistan High Court, the Islamabad High Court and the secretary Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

It was contended that the act of Pervez Musharraf wresting away the powers of the judiciary was indeed an act of high treason, to serve the interest of the blue-eyed Americans and Britons.

“Musharraf, who brought in the PCO, 2007, to replace the Constitution of 1973, in direct violation of his own oath and respondents, judges, who took oath under the PCO, 2007, indeed, committed a grave crime of subverting the Constitution and well deserve to be dealt with under Article 6 of the Constitution and punished under Section 2 of Act No LXVIII of 1973 as the High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973,” the petitioner stated.