IHC rejects plea to drop terrorism charges against Pervez Musharraf

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has dismissed a petition of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf seeking to remove the sections of Anti- Terrorism Act (ATA) in judges' detention case.

A division bench comprising IHC's Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb on Wednesday heard the petition of the former president and subsequently dismissed the plea, The Express Tribune reported.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) had already declared Musharraf proclaimed offender due to continuous non-appearance in the case.

The case was registered against him for confining 60 judges of the superior courts for more than five months after the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007.

However, in 2013, a single-member bench of the IHC had ordered the police to invoke the anti-terror law against the former president since detaining judges is an act of terrorism.

Musharraf has been abroad since March 2016.

The prosecution has laid entire evidence against the accused in this case. However, the trial is standstill as the former leader is absconding in the case.

On August 11, 2009, the Secretariat police had registered the judges' detention case against Musharraf on the complaint of advocate Mohammad Aslam Ghumman.

The complainant said that the former president, soon after the imposition of emergency in 2007, had kept 60 judges of the superior courts under detention for over five months at their residences.

Interestingly, despite the prosecution's repeated requests none of the detained judges or their family members testified before the ATC. Moreover, the prosecution did not mention in the FIR names of the judges detained.