SC orders Musharraf to appear before special court in treason case on May 2 or lose right of defence

Pakistan's former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was ordered to appear before a special court on May 2 by the Supreme Court in the high treason case and warned him that he would lose the right of defence if he failed to turn up.

A special court indicted General (retd) Musharraf for high treason in March 2014. Musharraf, 75, left for Dubai in 2016 to "seek medical treatment" and has not returned since. Last month, he was admitted to a hospital in Dubai after suffering a reaction from a rare disease for which he is already under treatment.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa was hearing a petition filed by a lawyer, who pointed out that the proceedings of the treason case being heard by a special court since 2014 had come to a halt as the former president Musharraf had not returned to the country since 2016.

"We cannot let the suspect avail the benefit of not appearing before the court deliberately. High-treason is not an ordinary crime," Chief Justice Khosa reminded the defence counsel.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against Musharraf over the president's imposition of extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007.

In the previous hearing of the petition, the top court had said that it would intervene if the special court, in its next hearing, failed to make a decision on how to record the former president's statement.

The apex court today said that if Musharraf does not appear before the special court on May 2, he would lose his right to record a statement under Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedures.

Musharraf's counsel told the court, "We contacted Musharraf's wife. The former president had set the date for his return as May 13 and he does not want to record his statement via Skype as there are too many documents."