ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved through a petition on Tuesday seeking suspension of the treason trial of former President Gen Pervez Musharraf before the Special Court because the law under which the trial court was constituted, was illegal.

The petition was moved before the Supreme Court by Sohail Hameed, a practicing lawyer from Karachi seeking a declaration that section 3 of the Criminal Amendment (Special Court) Act, 1976, to the extent of offence punishable under High Treason Act, 1973, was in violation of the Criminal Law Amendment and, therefore, without the lawful authority and of no legal effect.

The law, the lawyer said in the petition, was also against Article 6 of the constitution which dealt with the high treason.

The petitioner also said that the Special Court had not been created under any article of the constitution and, therefore, could not share the judicial power of the superior judiciary as held in the 1998 Mehram Ali case as well as the 1999 Liaquat Hussain case.

Similarly, an offence of high treason is not an offence under the Pakistan Penal Code or under any law but an offence under Article 6 (1 and 2) of the constitution and, therefore, not within the purview of the Criminal Amendment Act which only provides for amendment of criminal law, the petitioner said.