Court adjourns Pervez Musharraf treason case for 'last time'

ISLAMABAD: A special court on Thursday put off hearing of the high treason case against former president retired General Pervez Musharraf on a request by the newly-appointed prosecutor who sought time to peruse a lengthy case file and prepare his legal arguments, reported ARY News.

Adjourning the hearing until Dec 17 for “the last time”, the court warned it would pronounce its reserved verdict in the case on absence of any counsel in the next hearing.

“This is not the first adjournment as the case has previously been put off for dozens of times,” it said.

Ali Zia Bajwa, who has been named as a new prosecutor to lead the prosecution team in the case, said he got to know about his appointment Wednesday evening. He added he received relevant documents vis-à-vis the case last night and needed some time to go through them.

At this, the court said two days are enough to read these documents.

The prosecutor maintained the documents comprise over a thousand pages. Besides, he added he is unaware of whatever transpired in the presence of the previous prosecutor.

He assured the judges that he would try not to waste the count’s time.

The special court adjourned the hearing for two weeks at his insistence.

Earlier an Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench had stopped the special court from issuing its verdict in the case.

The IHC gave this order on a petition filed by the interior ministry requesting it to set aside the special court’s decision to announce its judgement in the high treason case on November 28.

Accepting the ministry’s petition, the IHC barred the special court from announcing the verdict.

“For reasons to be recorded later, we allow writ petition…filed by the Ministry of Interior,” the court had ruled, directing the federal government to notify a new prosecutor or a team of prosecution in the treason case by December 5.

Besides, the special court has been ordered to fix a date for giving “a reasonable opportunity of hearing” to the prosecutor or prosecution team as well as the counsel appointed for Pervez Musharraf