ISLAMABAD, April 22: It’s now official. Reiterating its earlier stance the caretaker government finally declined on Monday to prosecute former president retired Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason.

“It is likely to become a controversial exercise in long-term for both political parties and institutions of the state and, therefore, it should be best left for the elected government (to decide),” said a five-page statement read out by Deputy Attorney General Dil Mohammad Alizai on behalf of Attorney General Irfan Qadir before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court.

The bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja had taken up a set of petitions seeking initiation of a high treason case against Gen Musharraf for imposing emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

The bench ordered Rawalpindi Adiyala jail officials manning the Chak Shahzad farmhouse of Gen Musharraf after it was declared a sub-jail to allow his counsel Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Ibrahim Satti and Malik Qamar Afzal to meet him and get instructions and inform the court on Tuesday.

The order was issued after Gen Musharraf’s lawyers complained that despite clear directives conveyed to the jail authorities by none other than the court’s registrar, the legal team had been kept waiting with the excuse that instructions were being sought from the Punjab government.

“Different apprehensions are being cropped up in our minds since we have deliberately not been allowed to meet Gen Musharraf for the past three to four days,” Mr Kasuri regretted.

He requested for a medical check-up of the former military ruler at the Combined Military Hospital.

The court assured the counsel that it would ensure that the due process and the rights available to Gen Musharraf under the constitution were not impaired.

But what baffled the court was a reply submitted by Additional Interior Secretary Khushdil Malik who said that neither there was record of any effort in his ministry to initiate a treason case against Gen Musharraf under section 3 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act of 1973 nor the Jan 23, 2012 unanimous resolution by the Senate had been communicated to it which suggested to the federal government to detain the former president on his return to the country and initiate a treason trial under Article 6 of the constitution.

At the last hearing, acting Law Secretary Sohail Qadeer Siddiqi had informed the court that under a 1994 SRO, the interior secretary had been nominated as the authorised person to file complaints on treason charges.

“We have reached a point where we do not understand what the state is doing and the impression we are gathering is neither the government had done anything in the past nor does it intend to do in future as well,” Justice Jawwad regretted.

The interim government in its statement explained that it was heavily preoccupied with managing law and order and coordinating with police, law-enforcement agencies and the armed forces for the security of 20,000 candidates. “The resources and attention are already stretched to facilitate the holding of timely elections and effect smooth transfer of power to the rightful elected representatives of the people of Pakistan,” it said. The statement categorically said the legal proceedings pursuant to Article 6 of the constitution would be a measure not in the mandate of the caretaker government. It cited the parliamentary practice which obligates the interim set-up to confine its work to ‘day-to-day’ routine matters and effectively maintain the status quo for the elected government.

“The caretaker government should avoid taking any controversial step and should not commit any process that is not reversible by the incoming elected government,” it argued.

Justifying the reasons, the statement referred to a working paper by a globally respected NGO, Democracy Reporting International, as well as the 1988 judgment by Justice Abdul Shakurul Salam highlighting the role of caretakers and also the 1980 verdict by Indian judge Justice S. Mukherjee about the interim government.

“That is why the interim government deferred some items of the Council of Common Interests in a recently held meeting for the next elected government. It is not making any binding commitments with the IMF, World Bank or any other donor agency,” the statement said, adding that the caretaker set-up had also decided not to enter into any agreement or treaty to bind the future elected government and had turned down a request to be involved in the Reko Diq matter taking the view that this was best left for the elected government to decide.

The caretaker set-up, it said, had been left with only 20 days to finalise arrangements for conducting the general elections. “The coming elections pose an unprecedented challenge for the caretakers as the level of threat to candidates had never been so high in any previous election. That is why the caretakers are focusing all their attention on making arrangements in coordination with the provincial governments, political parties and the Election Commission,” it said.

Meanwhile, Advocate Abdul Hakeem Khan, one of the petitioners, moved another application and said that in order to meet the ends of justice and fair play the apex court should order immediate shifting of Gen Musharraf to Adiyala jail like ordinary prisoners from where he should be taken to the courts concerned as and when needed.