The arrest of former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf in the judges’ detention case has put the police investigators in a quandary.

The case was registered against the former military ruler on August 12, 2009, but the investigators never made any fruitful progress.

Police officials close to the investigation acknowledged that they did not probe the case properly due to directions from their seniors. After registration of the case, the police recorded the statements of a few lawyers.

The police and the capital administration authorities were asked by the investigators to provide them the rosters of officers serving in the city at that time, including the chief commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner Secretariat, magistrate, inspector general and other police officers, but the request was not entertained.

Now with the arrest of the former president, the police have again become active to investigate the case on the direction of the court.

A joint investigation team (JIT) has also been constituted to probe the matter and collect evidence.

However, legal experts and senior police officers are of the view that there are slim chances of collecting evidence against anyone to prove their involvement in the judges’ detention case.

The FIR was registered against the former president and his collaborators under sections 344 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which deal with wrongful confinement of anyone for 10 or more days and acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention.

However, the legal experts and police officers were of the opinion that section 109 of the PPC (abettor) should also have been added in the case.

In the FIR, the former president was accused of proclaiming an illegal provisional constitution order (PCO), sacking the chief justice of Pakistan and 60 other justices of the superior and higher courts, illegally detaining the judges and their families for five and a half months and stopping them from performing their judicial duty and their children from appearing in their exams.

They said such illegal directions were always issued verbally. Due to absence of any written direction, it would be difficult to fix responsibility.

In this case, there are only media reposts and photos suggesting that the judges were detained in their houses.

Besides, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s speech on March 25, 2008, in which he announced the release of the judges also suggested that the judges were detained.

However, there is still no evidence on whose direction the judges had been detained. This needs further investigation, they added.

Besides, anyone who ordered the detention of the judges was an abettor, not the prime accused, the police officers and legal experts opined.

They added that in this case the police and administration officers and their subordinates deployed around the judges’ residences were the prime accused.

The investigators should interrogate the policemen and administration officials who were deployed around the judicial colony to identify those who had ordered them to detain the judges.

This act will lead them to trace the entire chain and result in the arrest of the main person who had issued the orders.

However, according to the police officers and legal experts, the process will only help reach the top police and administration bureaucracy.

Senior lawyer Chaudhry Ashraf Gujjar said PPC-34 was also used against an abettor.

“The main accused in the judges’ detention case was the former president and his collaborators were officials of the police, administration and the interior ministry,” he maintained.

He also agreed that chances to get or collect evidence against those, including Musharraf, to fix responsibility regarding issuance of the order to detain the judges were meager.

However, he said the investigators can get help from circumstantial evidences and statements from the officials of the police and the administration.

It may be recalled that on November 3, 2007, a heavy contingent of the Islamabad police, Punjab Constabulary, police commandos and plainclothesmen believed to be from intelligence agencies arrived at the former chief justice’s residence and took position outside.

They got vacated the judicial colony from other people and blocked all the roads leading towards the colony.

On November 5, 2007, the law enforcement agencies cordoned off the judicial colony to restrict the movement of the deposed chief justice and other judges.

On November 6, 2007, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Ghulam Rabani, who tried to come out of their houses for going to the Supreme Court, were forcibly sent back to their residences.

The main gates of the official residences of the judges were also locked from outside. Besides, the PTCL connections to the houses were suspended.

The cellphone services of the judges were also suspended after the CJ addressed lawyers during a protest at the district and sessions courts of Islamabad from his house.

On November 7, 2007, officials guarding the house of Justice Chaudhry refused to let his daughter leave for appearing in her A-level exams.

On November 10, 2007, Justice Bhagwandas celebrated ‘Diwali” in detention. He was also not allowed to meet his relatives living at sector F-7 and G-10.

On November 29, 2007, Justice (retired) Majida Rizvi of Sindh High Court was disallowed to visit the judicial colony to meet Justice Bhagwandas.

On December 23, 2007, the deposed judges celebrated Eidul Azha in detention after they were not allowed to proceed to Faisal Mosque.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Justice (retired) Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim submitted applications to the authorities concerned, seeking permission to meet the deposed judges but these were turned down.