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: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Pakistan high court refuses Musharraf treason charges petition

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

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[JURIST] The registrar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday rejected a petition seeking treason charges against former president Pervez Musharraf, finding that the applicant lacked standing and that the Supreme Court was not the appropriate forum for such a petition. The petition was filed by Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. However, on the same day that Shah filed the petition, the PML-N said that the party's consolidated view was that any petition should be brought in parliament and not in the high court. Last week, PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called for treason charges during a parliamentary session, but Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) does not support treason charges against Musharraf, making the requisite consensus resolution extremely unlikely. Earlier this month, Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP) said that it would support treason charges against Musharraf, one day after Pakistani police filed charges against Musharraf alleging that he illegally detained members of the judiciary after declaring emergency rule in November 2007. Last month, the Supreme Court declared that Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule violated the Constitution of Pakistan. Musharraf resigned from office last August in order to avoid impeachment proceedings by the country's parliament. Earlier that month, the country's coalition government said that it would push to impeach Musharraf because he had given a "clear commitment" to step down from office after his party was defeated in parliamentary elections. In June 2008, Sharif called for Musharraf to be tried for treason, labeling him a traitor disloyal to Pakistan and saying he should be punished for the "damage" that he had done to the country in the years since he led a military coup and unseated Sharif in 1999.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).