Former President Pervez Musharraf and his wife Sehba Musharraf.—File Photo

ISLAMABAD The Supreme Court was requested on Monday to overturn its judgment validating the Nov 3, 2007, emergency rule in the Tikka Iqbal Mohammad case and order placing the name of former president Pervez Musharraf on the exit control list (ECL) by booking him in a treason case for abrogating the Constitution and damaging the judiciary.

Advocate Fazal Ellahi Siddiqui, who moved the petition under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on fundamental rights, also accuses former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and 43 other judges of aiding and abetting the subversion of the Constitution by taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) after the proclamation of Nov 3 emergency.

This is the third such petition filed in the apex court after reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. In earlier petitions, Advocate Nadeem Malik and Advocate Nadeem Ahmed sought that contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the judges who took oath under the PCO and the verdict in the Tikka Iqbal case be declared null and void.

Former president Musharraf, President Asif Ali Zardari, the army chief, former chief justice Dogar and Justice (retd) Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi are respondents in Advcate Ellahi`s petition.

The petition said it had become a common phenomenon that the army intervened after every eight to 10 years, amended the Constitution to suit its needs and eventually to get its acts of omissions and commissions validated by the courts and parliament.

`The military commanders consider that the public will weep and wail for a few days (on military intervention), but after that they have to reconcile to the fait accompli,` the petition said.

The Americans, like in Musharraf`s time, have also been given a free hand by President Zardari and fundamental rights of the people are being violated daily in tribal areas and Dir, Swat and Chitral. A large number of people have migrated from these areas and suffered tremendous losses with no hope of returning to their homes because of US drone attacks, but the government is sitting as a silent spectator.`

The petition contended that the act of former president Musharraf to wrest powers of the judiciary was indeed an act of high treason to serve US and British interests.

It said that the judges who had taken oath under the PCO had also committed the grave crime of subverting the Constitution and, therefore, deserved to be dealt with under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution and punished under Section 2 of Act No LXVIII of 1973 as High Treason (Punishment) Act of 1973.