ISLAMABAD: The special court seized with the high treason trial of former president retired General Pervez Musharraf accepted his request for exemption from personal appearance on Friday, but ordered him and his guarantor, retired Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, to appear before it on February 18.

“They (Gen Musharraf and Gen Qureshi) have failed to fulfil the terms and conditions of bond and, therefore, are liable to be dealt with under sections 92 and 514 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),” the three-judge court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court, observed.

The sections empower a court to arrest a person and attach and sell his immovable property against a surety bond if he fails to appear before it after bail. The court observed that after it had issued bailable arrest warrants for Gen Musharraf on Jan 31, his guarantor Rashid Qureshi deposited surety bonds of Rs2.5 million and gave an undertaking that the accused “will appear before the court on each and every date of hearing”. But neither the accused nor his guarantor was present in the court on Friday, it regretted.

When the court asked Anwar Mansoor Khan, counsel for Gen Musharraf, why the guarantor was absent, he said: “I will call him and the guarantor will be here in no time.”

He assured the court that Gen Musharraf and his guarantor would appear before it at the next hearing.

The counsel said Gen Musharraf had already appeared before seven different courts and “he has no hesitation for his appearance except that he feels this court has no jurisdiction”.

“Gen Musharraf has apprehensions that the special court will indict him if he appears before it,” he said, adding: “The law has also empowered my lord to frame charges against the accused the day he would appear. My client desires that the court first decide the matter relating to the jurisdiction of this court.”

He said that since his client was a former army chief, he thought that his indictment in the high treason case would damage his reputation.

“But you can request for a delay in framing charges even in his presence in the court,” Justice Arab told the counsel. Under the law, the accused must attend the proceedings and then seek any relief as admissible under the law from the court, the judge added.

Dr Tariq Hassan, a member of the prosecution team, said the court “has already shown sufficient indulgence to the accused, though the law provides that if an accused fails to appear in terms of the bailable warrants, non-bailable warrants are to be issued”.

But the court said in its order: “In view of the undertaking given by Mr Anwar Mansoor Khan, this court opts not to exercise the power available under section 92 of CrPC and gives an opportunity to the accused to make his appearance before this court on Feb 18, 2014.”

The court ordered that the surety (guarantor) also appear before it on the said date.

At the outset of the hearing, the defence lawyers filed two applications seeking withdrawal of bailable arrest warrants issued for Gen Musharraf and exemption from personal appearance on Friday.

Before the commencement of the proceedings there were rumours that Gen Musharraf would appear before the court. However, there was no extra deployment of police and Rangers on the route between the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) and the special court.

Gen Musharraf was rushed to the AFIC on Jan 2 when he complained of heart problems while going to the court.