LAHORE, July 5: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday gave last chance to the federal government to file its reply to a petition seeking registration of a case against former president Gen Pervez Musharraf (retired) for committing high treason and issuance of red warrants for his extradition through Interpol to initiate sedition proceedings against him under Article 6 of the Constitution.

Taking strict notice of casual attitude of the respondent government, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed: “The court will start ex-parte (one sided) proceedings in the case, if the federal government failed to file reply on the next hearing.” Then the judge adjourned hearing till July 13.

Earlier, a deputy attorney-general on behalf of the government sought more time to file a reply. At this, the petitioner's counsel A.K. Dogar pointed out that the government had failed to file its reply on 27 dates of hearing.

Petitioner Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi prayed that a case be registered against Gen Musharraf for high treason and red warrants be issued for his extradition through Interpol. The petitioner levelled allegations of different nature against the former military dictator including sacking superior courts' judges, detaining Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with his family at his residence, killing Hafiz-i-Quran girls and boys during Jamia Hafsa operation in Islamabad, compelling Dr AQ Khan to admit charges of illegally selling nuclear technology, ordering Nawab Akbar Bugti's murder and facilitating Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's kidnapping from Karachi. reply sought: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday again sought a reply from the Punjab government and the secretary services on a petition challenging appointment of Justice Jahangir Arshad (retired) as the Punjab Services Tribunal chairman and Justice Afzal Hameed Cheema (retired) as the labour appellate tribunal chairman.

The court directed the respondents to file their replies within two weeks.

Advocate Muhammad Afaq filed the petition pleading that the appointment of both retired judges was in violation of the National Judicial Policy. He said under the judicial policy and also judgments of the Supreme Court, a retired judge or other government servant could not be reappointed.

ADJOURNED: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Tuesday adjourned hearing of a writ petition against possible presidential pardon to Indian spy Sarabjit Singh who is on death row for killing 14 Pakistanis in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in 1990.

A deputy attorney general sought adjournment to file reply on behalf of the federal government and the chief justice adjourned the hearing till first week of August. Advocate Rana Ilmuddin Ghazi filed the petition submitting that Dalbir Kaur, sister of Sarabjit, had appealed to the president of Pakistan to commute her brother's death sentence into life imprisonment and release him from jail.

He said the president could not exercise his powers under article 45 of the Constitution without consent of legal heirs of the persons who were killed in the two blasts carried out by Sarabjit.

The petitioner pointed out that the death sentence awarded to Sarabjit by a trial court was upheld by high court and the Supreme Court also rejected his appeals against the sentence.