LAHORE, July 11: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court on Monday sought a reply from the federal government by July 13 on a civil miscellaneous application which sought conviction of former president Pervez Musharraf under the High Treason Act 1973.

Advocate Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi filed the application in his already pending petition against Musharraf saying that a 14-member bench of the Supreme Court in the case of Sindh High Court Bar Association vs the Federation of Pakistan had already held that Gen Pervez Musharraf (retired) was guilty of offence of high treason.

He said that it was self-evident that Musharraf had already convicted by the SC and only the sentence was to be announced against him in accordance with section 2 of the High Treason Act 1973 which provides life imprisonment or death sentence.

He said the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case was an example that the high court had the power on original side to try and punish a high state dignitary in a high profile case.

Normally, the sessions court had been empowered to try all cases where death sentence was pronounced but in the case of high state officials the high court had the jurisdiction as a trial court, he said.

Advocate Ghazi prayed to the court to announce sentence on Musharraf being guilty of high treason.