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Pakistan to try ex-president Musharraf for treason
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Pakistan announced yesterday it would put former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason, punishable by death or life imprisonment, for imposing emergency rule in 2007.
“Following the judgement of the Supreme Court and a report submitted by an inquiry committee, it has been decided to start proceedings against General Pervez Musharraf (for treason) under Article 6 of the Constitution,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference televised live yesterday.
“It is happening for the first time in the history of Pakistan and the decision has been taken in the national interest,” Khan said.
The minister said the country’s Chief Justice would today receive a letter from the government requesting the setting-up of a tribunal of three high court judges to start proceedings against Musharraf.
The government would also announce a special prosecutor today.
Musharraf is already facing four major criminal cases dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, including one related to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Last week he asked a court to let him leave the country to visit his sick mother in Dubai. The court was expected to rule on the application today.
There have been rumors in recent months that a deal would be reached for Musharraf to leave Pakistan without going through with his trials.
Khan said that thrice-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government had come to power five months ago and it had never demonstrated any “revengeful” gesture toward the former president.
Musharraf overthrew the Sharif government in a bloodless military coup in October 1999, but a year later the Supreme Court validated the takeover.
In November 2007 Musharraf imposed emergency rule, suspending the constitution and parliament and sacking top judges who declared his actions unconstitutional and illegal.
Musharraf technically became a free man this month when an Islamabad district court granted him bail over a deadly raid on a radical mosque in the capital in 2007.
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