Islamabad: A special court today reserved its decision on a plea by former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf to include several former civilian and military leaders in his treason trial case.
A three-member tribunal headed by Justice Faisal Arab is trying 71-year-old Musharraf for treason which he allegedly committed by imposing emergency in 2007 when he was president of the country.
Musharraf has challenged it saying that he was politically targeted by individually being put on trial and he asked to include all those civil and military leaders who were part of the government at that time.
His lawyer Farough Naseem today completed arguments, asking the court to hold a joint trial of all those involved in imposing the emergency.
Naseem said that imposing emergency was a collective action taken in consultation with then civil and military leaders, including then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, cabinet members and corp commanders of the former army chief.
“No single person can be held responsible for the imposition of emergency. It is against law,” he said.
The court reached a decision but reserved it till November 21. No reason was given for delaying the announcement. Musharraf ruled from 1999 to 2008 when he lost power and went into self-imposed exile.
He returned to Pakistan in 2013 after over four years but faces a slew of cases, including the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto and killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti in 2006.
He was implicated in several criminal cases including the abrogation of the constitution which is a treasonous act under the law and punishable with death or life in jail.
Currently, he is on bail in four criminal cases while the treason case is going on in a special tribunal. Musharraf presently lives in Karachi as all his efforts to go abroad so far have failed. (PTI)
