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Pakistan politicians call for Musharraf treason charges

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

[JURIST] Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP) will support Article 6 treason charges against former president Pervez Musharraf, according to a Thursday Daily Times report. Although it is part of the ruling coalition government of President Asif Ali Zardari, ANP Vice President Haji Adeel said that the decision to propose charges against the former military ruler should be made by more prominent political parties. Members of Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) also announced Thursday that they support pursuing treason charges, saying that the party has never supported dictators, and that such a prosecution would deter future impositions of martial law. Sir Mark Lyall Grant, former High Commissioner to Pakistan from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, reportedly met with former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif to urge him not to pursue legal action against Musharraf, although Sharif remains supportive of the measure. On Wednesday, Pakistani police filed charges against Musharraf alleging that he illegally detained members of the judiciary after declaring emergency rule in November 2007. Earlier this week, a district court in Islamabad directed police to open an investigation into the allegations. Last month, the Supreme Court of Pakistan 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, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz 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 13, 2009 (boomark / email).