ISLAMABAD – A special court has said that it will announce verdict ontreason case against former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf onDecember 17.
Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth headed a three-memberbench of the special court on Thursday. A new prosecution team for thegovernment, in which Advocate Ali Zia Bajwa and Munir Bhatti wereappointed, appeared before the court.
Bajwa informed the court that he and Bhatti both received the notificationof their appointment on Wednesday and also received a document of 3,000pages, local media reported. He told the bench that he needed time to gothrough the document as he did not want to depend on the arguments of theprevious prosecution team.
He assured the bench that he would not waste the court’s time and requestedit to grant him some days. Accepting the advocate’s request the benchadjourned the proceedings till December 17, saying that they would heararguments of the new prosecution team in the next hearing and announce theverdict.
The bench also ruled that this would be the last time the court wasadjourning the proceedinsg. During the last hearing, the special court hadsaid that it would hold hearings on the treason case on daily basis. It hadalso said that it would announce its verdict in the case today.
The special court has been hearing the case of imposition ofextra-constitutional emergency by Musharraf in 2007. The treason case hasbeen pending since December 2013. Back in 2014, Musharraf was indicted bythe special court when he appeared and rejected all charges against him.
He then left the country in 2016 for medical treatment, after the SupremeCourt removed his name from the Exit Control List.