ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: Trouble for former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf appears to be far from over. Living up to its commitment made over four months ago, the federal government has finally kick-started the process of putting the former army chief on treason trial for suspending the constitution while proclaiming the state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

As announced by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali at a hurriedly called press conference on Sunday, the government sent a one-page letter to the Supreme Court registrar through a special messenger with a request to place the matter before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for constituting a special court comprising three high court judges to try Gen Musharraf.

When constituted, the court will start functioning at Islamabad.

Moving swiftly, the chief justice ordered the SC office to circulate copies of the letter among the chief justices of the five high courts to send the names of judges on Tuesday. “Copy of the letter be circulated among the learned chief justices of Balochistan High Court, Sindh High Court, Lahore High Court, Peshawar High Court and Islamabad High Court so that they may each nominate a judge of their respective court, out of which three names shall be forwarded to the government for the special court. The nomination may reach this court on Nov 19, 2013, positively,” the chief justice ordered after going through the contents of the letter sent to the apex court on Monday.

Attorney General Muneer A. Malik had on June 24 assured a Supreme Court bench hearing petitions against Gen Musharraf that the government would proceed in accordance with the law and prosecute him for treason after taking political forces into confidence.

The letter signed by Law Secretary Barrister Zafarullah Khan was filed under Section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment (Special Courts) Act 1976. It requested for constitution of a special court to try Gen Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution dealing with high treason.

The special court has an exclusive jurisdiction and no other court could interfere in its trial. Although there was a general perception that the government move was an attempt to divert the media focus from Rawalpindi’s sectarian violence, a former president of the Rawalpindi High Court Bar, Sheikh Ahsanuddin, claimed that the letter was in reaction to his Nov 12 petition in which he had sought initiation of a contempt proceeding against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not complying with the Supreme Court’s July 3 order of prosecuting Gen Musharraf for treason.

Having seen the fate of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who had to quit the coveted office after having been charged with committing contempt of court and how his successor, Raja Pervez Ashraf, had to write a letter to the Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against former president Asif Ali Zardari, the PML-N government must have thought not to take any chance, he explained.

Although the request for nominating the high court judges was sent by the law ministry, it will be the interior secretary who will follow the trial in the special court. Under a statutory regulatory order issued in 1994, the interior secretary has been designated as a focal person to lodge a final complaint under Article 6 of the Constitution in the special court.

The trial will be held under the High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973, which suggests death or imprisonment for life as the punishment for high treason defined in Article 6 of the Constitution.

The federal government, the letter says, has decided to invoke the power vested in it under Section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment (Special Courts) Act 1976 (Act No. XVII of 1976) to establish a special court to try Gen Musharraf for various offences falling under Section 2 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973.

“The law provides that the special court shall comprise three serving judges of the high courts. Since there are five high courts and it will be difficult to nominate three judges from these five high courts for the special court, it will be appropriate that the apex court may nominate any three judges from the high courts for the special court,” the letter says.

Asked why the government had not nominated the judges itself, a senior government official said that after separation of the executive from the judiciary, as ruled in the 1989 Sharaf Faridi case, it was better to seek guidance from the Supreme Court rather than taking a decision which might become controversial later.

He recalled that a row erupted when the government had decided to nominate former SC judge Justice Javed Iqbal to head the Abbottabad commission on its own. His name was later withdrawn and the chief justice was requested to nominate a person for the purpose. The chief justice, however, nominated Justice Javed Iqbal.