Plea in Pak court seeks Musharraf's trial in military court

A petition has been filed in a Pakistani court seeking trial of former president Pervez Musharraf in a military court for allegedly committing treason by imposing emergency in the country in 2007.

The National Ex-Servicemen Society has filed the pertinent in the Lahore High Court yesterday.

The petitioner through its counsel contended in the court of Justice Ijazul Ahsan that all the alleged unconstitutional acts of November 3, 2007 were taken by 70-year-old Musharraf, the then Chief of Army Staff.

Therefore, he should be exclusively tried by the army court under sections 31 and 59 of the Pakistan Army Act for the crime of mutiny and insubordination of the Constitution.

The petitioner argued that three retired senior army officers accused of misappropriation of funds in another case were being tried a military court whereas Musharraf also had committed the offence in violation of Article 6 of the Constitution while in the uniform, therefore, he should also be ordered to be tried by a military court.

The petitioner urged the court to declare that a three- judge special bench formed by Supreme Court is a coram-non-judice, unconstitutional and lacking jurisdiction to hold trial of a person subject to Army Act.

It further urged the court to order the government to refer the trial of Musharraf to a military court.

Justice Ahsan asked the petitioner for arguments on the maintainability of the petition and adjourned the hearing for a date to be fixed by office.

Meanwhile, the PML-N government has yet to file treason charges against Musharraf in a three-member special court set up by the Supreme Court for his trial.