LHC decision on special court against Musharraf challenged in SC

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court verdict against the special court in Musharraf case has been challenged in the Supreme Court, ARY News reported on Monday.

A bench of the high court had granted a petition of former president Pervez Musharraf on January 13 and declared formation of special court to hear high treason case against him as unlawful.

Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi had announced the court verdict.

Petitioner Taufiq Asif, a former president of the high court’s Rawalpindi Bar, has challenged the LHC decision. The petitioner has pleaded the supreme court to declare the verdict of the high court as ‘unconstitutional’ and thus null and void.

The petition argues that the petition against the special court was out of the jurisdiction of the Lahore High Court. The Article VI of the constitution was also not interpreted properly in the verdict, according to the petition.

“The high court could not question the supreme court’s decision about conducting the trial in absence of the accused,” the petition said.

The court in its verdict had said that the Article VI could not be enforced from the back date. The bench also expunged clause (ix) of the Criminal Law Special Court (Amendment) Act 1976.

The petition filed in the high court said that the constitution of a special court for hearing the case against Pervez Musharraf was unconstitutional.

The petition pleaded the high court to declare the constitution of the special court and its proceedings as unlawful.

The Lahore High Court on January 13 granted the petition and declared the special court as unlawful.

Musharraf had been sentenced to death by a special court on December 17, 2019, after six years of hearing the case, which was filed against him by the previous PML-N government after it assumed office in 2013.