ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government and former military dictator retired General Pervez Musharraf seem to be on the same page as far as the treason trial is concerned.

Neither of the two parties has challenged the special court’s order, in which the court had told the government to add three co-accused to the treason trial, which had been focused on Musharraf.

The deadline for challenging the order has passed.

Parties who may not be happy with a court order or judgment can challenge it within a legally allowed time period.

Former senior civil judge Saeed Khurshid advocate told Dawn: “The order of the special court was an interim order and an application could be filed against it in the IHC within 90 days.”

Neither govt nor Musharraf move IHC against the order of including three co-accused in the treason trial

The special court on November 21 ordered the federal government to implicate former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and former federal minister of the PML-N Zahid Hamid as Gen Musharraf’s co-accused.

The deadline for filing this application for challenging this order (which was passed on November 21) passed on Saturday.

In addition to this, under Article 185 of the Constitution, the order could also have been challenged in the Supreme Court. Neither party availed this option.

The ‘mysterious’ silence or inactivity of the government has strengthened the rumours that the PML-N will no longer pursue the treason trial, in a bid to appease the military.

Last year, it was strongly suggested that the government’s decision to try Musharraf had soured its relationship with the military.

At a recent roundtable organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat), it was pointed out that the sit-ins outside the parliament were directly linked to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to try former army chief Gen Musharraf for treason charges.

However, it is important to mention that the order was challenged by those who were implicated by it.

Former premier Aziz, Dogar and Hamid did file petitions in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), challenging the order.

In fact, the disinterest of the original parties of the case is evident from the fact that the federal government and Gen Musharraf did not even bother to file replies to the court hearing the three petitions.

During the hearing of these petitions on Feb 3, IHC Justice Athar Minallah noticed that neither the federal government nor Gen Musharraf had filed a reply.

The “government does not seem interested in pursuing this matter,” said the judge.

Former deputy attorney general Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri also believes that the government is not serious about the treason trial.

“Had it been interested in pursuing the case it would have challenged the November 21 order,” he said, adding that “the government’s legal team did not try to vacate the restraining order passed by the IHC in this matter as well”.

According to him, if a party does not challenge the order, it is presumed that the verdict is acceptable to that party.

Sources close to Gen Musharraf said that the former military ruler was happy with the special court order.

“Gen Musharraf did not challenge the order because the November 21 order was favourable to him,” said someone who is close to the general and his legal team.

The prosecution team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which has handled the investigations for the treason case, does not have a clear view or policy.

Some prosecutors are of the view that the government should have challenged the order but others think that their job is done as they were only supposed to investigate the case. The decision to pursue the case, they say, is the government’s responsibility.

Sardar Asmatullah, a senior prosecutor in the case, said that under Article 184/2, the prosecution can file a petition in the Supreme Court and under Article 199 it can approach the IHC whenever it wants.

“However, the prosecution needs the approval of the federal government before it can do anything,” he conceded.

When contacted, the minister for information and broadcasting, Pervez Rashid, said that since three individual petitions are pending in the IHC against the order, the government decided not to challenge the order.

“Filing a petition against the November 21 order would create the impression that the government wanted to single out an individual and we don’t want to create this impression,” he added.

But he insisted that “there is no change in our policy” as the prime minister wants to proceed in “accordance with the book”.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2015

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