FIA launches probe into Nov 2007 emergency

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KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched an investigation into the Nov 3, 2007 emergency imposed by former president Pervez Musharraf, the body's director general told Dawn.com on Saturday.

Although the inquiry had been ordered by the government in late June this year, on Oct 12, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said he had asked the FIA to fast-track the high treason case against Musharraf over subverting the Constitution by imposing emergency and to take the matter to a logical conclusion within six weeks.

Director General FIA Saud Mirza said statements of some bureaucrats had already been recorded in this regard.

The investigation was launched following directives from the interior minister, Mirza said adding that Musharraf's statement would soon be recorded in relation to the Nov 3 emergency case.

Mirza told Dawn.com that the investigation would be completed within a period of six weeks.

The state of emergency imposed on Nov 3, 2007 lasted until Dec 15 of that year. Later in July 2009, the Supreme Court in a judgment declared the former army strongman's decision to impose emergency unconstitutional and illegal.

The former president is currently seeking a bail in a case over the killing of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi after being granted bail in three other cases.

Assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, death of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and detention of deposed Supreme Court judges are the other three major cases registered against the former military ruler.

The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to kill the 70-year-old former general, who as president allied Pakistan with Washington in the US “war on terror” in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

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