ISLAMABAD: A special court set up in the federal capital to try former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason charges issued an order for his appearance at its next hearing which has been adjourned to January 16 after reviewing the medical report submitted by his counsel, DawnNews reported.
The court said that Musharraf’s medical report did not mention that he had a heart attack and that he was not in a position to appear before it.
It also said Musharraf had been granted exemption from appearance in the court thrice earlier and added that the former president's counsel had not submitted an application for his no-show today.
Earlier today, the three-member special court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab, had reserved its decision until 2 pm on the former president’s medical report.
During the hearing, the prosecution and defence lawyers had presented their arguments before the court.
Advocate Akram Sheikh had said the former president was not bed-ridden and had met his lawyers yesterday while he was being shifted from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to the ward.
The prosecutor had requested that Musharraf’s medical report should be disregarded and that he should be summoned to the court.
He added that there was no mention of Musharraf's absence in the report.
Musharraf’s counsel Ilyas Siddiqui had presented the ex-army strongman’s medical report in court along with a list of people who had undertaken medical treatment abroad on public expenditure.
Moreover, he had also submitted an application stating that the former president was suffering from a heart ailment due to which he could not appear before the court and requested for exemption to be granted to his client from appearing for today's hearing.
The court had granted the application and adjourned the hearing to Jan 16.
Following the hearing, Musharraf’s counsel Ahmed Raza Kasuri had spoken to media representatives outside the court and expressed reservations over making the former president’s medical report public. He claimed that an individual's right of privacy in the Constitution was violated.
