ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court dismissed a petition on Wednesday seeking the elimination of terrorism charges against former retired President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the transfer of the detention case of the judges of the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) to the court of sessions.
A bank in the IHC division composed of the president of the court, Judge Athar Minallah and Judge Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, resumed the hearing of the petition filed by General Musharraf through his lawyer Akhtar Shah.
The bank rejected the petition due to Mr. Shah's repeated absence during the case hearing.
Former military ruler has been declared a criminal proclaimed in the case of detention of judges
The former military ruler has been seeking the elimination of terrorism charges and the subsequent transfer of his ATC case to the session court because initially the first information report (FIR) was registered under the Pakistan Criminal Code against him in relationship with detention. of 60 judges of the higher judiciary after the emergency imposition on November 3, 2007.
However, in 2013, a single-member IHC bank had ordered the police to invoke the anti-terrorism law against the military dictator, since arresting the judges is an act of terrorism.
The ATC has already declared General Musharraf as a proclaimed offender in the case of detention of judges, since he has been abroad since March 2016.
The prosecution has presented complete evidence against the defendants in this case. However, the trial is stalled since the former military leader is escaping in the case.
Gen Musharraf was charged under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Law (ATA) and Section 344 of the Criminal Code of Pakistan.
On August 11, 2009, the police of the Secretariat had registered the case of detention of the judges against General Musharraf for the complaint of lawyer Mohammad Aslam Ghumman.
The plaintiff said that the former president, shortly after the emergency imposition in 2007, had held 60 judges of the higher courts for more than five months in their residences.
Interestingly, despite repeated requests from the prosecution, none of the detained judges or their families testified before the ATC. In addition, the prosecution did not mention in the FIR names of the detained judges.
Taking advantage of the legal loopholes, General Musharraf's lawyer, Akhtar Shah, challenged the terrorism charges. According to the petition, Section 7 of the ATA, 1997, was inserted in the case by order of the IHC, but the charges were not proven during the investigation. The petition added that the investigators and the prosecution did not present evidence in relation to Section 7 of the ATA.
Referring to an IHC order, he said, a division bank composed of Judge Noorul Haq Qureshi and Judge Riaz Ahmed Khan had argued that the lawyers' accusations could not be considered as evidence.
Posted on Dawn, October 10, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1510019/ihc-rejects-plea-to-drop-terrorism-charges-against-musharraf