ISLAMABAD: Retired General Pervez Musharraf is not the only individual avoiding appearance in the court. There are other high-profile personalities as well, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari, who have remained absent from court proceedings a number of times.

Sources privy to the Ogra corruption reference claimed that former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has been summoned by an accountability court on Feb 18, intends to seek exemption after putting in a one-time appearance.

On the same day (Feb 18) former president Pervez Musharraf is to appear before the special court constituted to try him for high treason. The court had decided to indict him on Dec 24, but the retired general has been seeking exemption from every hearing on one pretext or another.

The special court expects that Pervez Musharraf will appear on Feb 18 as his counsel Anwar Mansoor Khan had assured the three-member bench that he would try to persuade the retired general to comply with its order.

Exactly a month before that date – Jan 18 – former president Zardari appeared before the accountability court in connection with five corruption references pending for over a decade.

The last time that Mr Zardari appeared in the accountability court was in 2004. He then went abroad after obtaining bail.

The five corruption references were filed against Mr Zardari 17 years ago. They are related to the Cotecna, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), ARY Gold, Ursus tractors and polo ground cases.

In October last year, the accountability court had reopened proceedings against Mr Zardari in compliance with the Supreme Court judgement passed in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case in Dec 2009.

In the judgement, the apex court had ordered revival of the cases which had been closed after promulgation of the NRO in 2007. Since October Mr Zardari’s appearance in court during proceedings on the corruption references has become mandatory, but his counsel have kept seeking exemption and, after his appearance on Jan 18, won permanent exemption for him from day-to-day appearance.

The case of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as well as of other members of his family, is identical.

After the former PPP government filed an application in July 2011 in the accountability court of Rawalpindi for reopening of corruption references against Mr Sharif and his family members, he assigned to his lawyer, Akram Sheikh, the task of securing exemption for him from court appearance.

During one of the proceedings on the application of reopening of references against the Sharifs, the National Accountability Bureau’s additional deputy prosecutor general pointed out that not only Mr Sharif but his family members, too, were not present inside the courtroom even though they were named in the references.

During that hearing, the prosecutor informed the judge that in the earlier hearing of July 28, none of the accused persons appeared in court despite the fact that the court had issued their summons.

According to the NAB official, under the criminal procedure code (CrPC) the attendance of an accused in criminal cases is compulsory unless the court grants exemption to them for certain reasons.

According to advocate Akram Sheikh, Mr Sharif not only appeared before the courts but also had gone to jail in “some fabricated cases”.

Justifying absence of the Sharifs from the proceedings of accountability court in 2011, Mr Sheikh said “since Nawaz Sharif had challenged the summons issued to him by the accountability court, he did not attend the proceedings”.

Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, a former vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), told Dawn that “status-conscious people” preferred to stay away from court. “Some people think that their appearance will be a time-wasting exercise,” he observed.

He, however, said it was in the interest of an accused to witness the proceedings as during the trial the prosecution places evidence against him and records statements of the witnesses. Personal appearance enables him to refute the allegations.

A former judge of the Islamabad High Court, Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, who appears in accountability court along with Farooq H. Naek, lead counsel for Mr Zardari, said the exemption provision has been provided in CrPC.

“An accused can request the court for exempting him (from appearance) after giving valid reason,” he said.

According to him, the case of Mr Zardari is different from other cases as his wife Benazir Bhutto has already died and the former president is also facing serious threats to his life.