Court reserves judgment in Musharraf high treason case

The special court in Pakistan set up to try former president Pervez Musharraf in the high treason case Thursday reserved its ruling regarding the appearance of former military dictator in court.

Registrar of the special court Abdul Ghani Soomro will announce the ruling later Thursday at 3 p.m. in the court room of the Federal Shariat Court, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The three-judge panel of the special court headed by Justice Faisal Arab resumed hearing of the historic treason trial against Musharraf. However, despite the court's clear orders for his appearance, he did not appear before the court.

The ninth hearing of the special court, held in the National Library here, started sans Musharraf following the previous trend of the defendant's lawyers' team representing him.

Musharraf's lawyers contended that as their client was still admitted in the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi, it would not be possible for him to come to the court.

Ibrahim Satti, counsel for Musharraf, sought adjournment of the case for a week as their application was pending before the Supreme Court.

Special Public Prosecutor Akram Sheikh pleaded that Musharraf was continuously violating the court's orders, which tantamounted to contempt of court. He requested the court to issue contempt of court orders against Musharraf.

After failing, for the second time in 10 days, to appear Jan 1 in the special court formed to try him, Musharraf was being taken to the court Jan 3 when he complained of a "heart problem" and was then taken and admitted to the AFIC in Rawalpindi.

The Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistani government set up the special court to try the former military ruler on charges of high treason for imposing Emergency and subverting the constitution in 2007.

Musharraf has been charged with abrogating, subverting, suspending, holding in abeyance and attempting to conspire against the 1973 Constitution by declaring Emergency and detaining judges of the superior courts.