Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday issued the detailed judgement in the case relating to the removal of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

The ruling was made on the federal government’s plea wherein it challenged the Sindh High Court’s order and requested the Supreme Court to retain the name of the former dictator on the Exit Control List. Earlier in 2014, a division bench of the Sindh High Court had ordered removal of Musharraf’s name from the Exit Control List.

The 13-page detailed verdict authored by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali stated: “We have heard the arguments of Attorney General for Pakistan on behalf of the Appellant and Dr Farough Naseem, for respondent General (R) Pervez Musharraf. For the reasons to be recorded separately, this appeal is dismissed. However, this order will not preclude the Federation of Pakistan or the Special Court, seized of the proceedings under Article 6 of the Constitution against respondent General (R) Pervez Musharraf, from passing any legal order for regulating his custody or restricting his movement.”

The order termed that the case involving removal of Musharraf’s name from the ECL was legal in the Sindh High Court and stated that the perusal of impugned judgment revealed that the learned Division Bench of the High Court of Sindh had correctly appreciated the relevant facts of the case, aptly taken into consideration the case-law cited at the bar, and recorded valid and cogent reasons for granting requisite relief to Musharraf, thereby striking down the memorandum issued by the Ministry of Interior.

“Not only this, but mindful of the sensitive nature and political hype of the issue, as an abundant precaution, it had also suspended the operation of impugned judgment for a period of 15 days to enable the appellant and proforma respondents to avail any other appropriate remedy, including their right to challenge the impugned judgment before the apex court. Still the appellant took no independent stance/decision in the matter, except following the remedy of challenging the said judgment in this appeal, which, as discussed above, is devoid of merits.”

The court said that under Article 15 of the Constitution freedom of movement was one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen of the country and that could not be abridged or denied arbitrarily without a lawful justification.

“The superior Courts are, therefore, normally reluctant in passing orders of such nature, except in some exceptional circumstances, which is not the position here at this stage, as understandably the Respondent No.1 (Musharraf) is facing trial before different criminal Courts/Special Court for the charged offences, which are competent to regulate all issues as regards his custody,” reads the verdict issued on Friday.

The top court ruled that the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance, 1981 and Exit from Pakistan (Control) Rules 2010 provided a complete mechanism to restrict the movement of any person where there was a lawful and valid reason for this.

However, the top court in its verdict said that such option had not been exercised as yet by the federal government upon independent application of mind or by the Special Court constituted under Article 6 of the Constitution or the other courts of law where Musharraf was facing proceedings relating to criminal cases registered against him.