Daily Times

Days before a special court is scheduled to announce its verdict in the high treason case, former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf on Saturday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court to challenge the reservation of the judgment, a private TV channel reported.

Musharraf’s counsel, Khwaja Ahmed Tariq Rahim, approached the high court, contending that the reserving of the verdict on November 19 is ‘unconstitutional and void’. He pleaded that the impugned order from that date be suspended and that the trial in absentia being conducted against the petitioner be stayed until his physical appearance before the court.

Citing the ‘landmark judgment’ in the Mustafa Impex, Karachi vs The Government of Pakistan case, the petition called for the decision in the case to be enforced and the trial in Musharraf’s case to be re-initiated. The petition also argued that the federation of Pakistan and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) be directed to conduct a ‘proper and unbiased’ investigation including the names of all alleged aiders and abettors for the proper appreciation of facts and evidence at trial. It pleaded that the petitioner be granted his ‘constitutional right to a fair trial and audience in the instant trial’ according to the law.