ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari on Saturday summoned the session of the upper house on May 2 to discuss the progress in the trial of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on treason charges.

The session had been requisitioned by 33 members, mostly from the PPP and the PML-N, on April 19 soon after its prorogation and passage of two resolutions demanding trial of the former military ruler under article 6 of the constitution and removal of his portraits from all government buildings.

The requisition spearheaded by PPP stalwart Raza Rabbani came after senators expressed dissatisfaction over the caretaker government’s response on the trial of Gen Musharraf. They also feared that the former dictator might be allowed to leave the country.

After submitting the requisition notice, Mr Rabbani had said the senators would not allow the government to show any leniency and the Senate would keep the track of the trial of Gen Musharraf.

The caretaker government has already expressed its inability to become a party in the trial of Gen Musharraf, saying that the matter was out of its jurisdiction and mandate.

It will be interesting to see how the former law minister of the PPP government, Farooq Naek, who had been appointed as leader of the house by the prime minister last week, would defend the caretaker government’s decision of not pursuing the treason case against the former dictator since his party colleagues have been demanding of the present rulers to hold the trial.

During the last session of the house, the senators belonging to the PPP and the PML-N had delivered harsh speeches against the former dictator. They had even criticised the caretaker government for providing him “state security” and protocol”.

The members of the PML-Q and the MQM, the parties which were part of the Musharraf-led set-up between 2002 and 2008, preferred not to speak on the issue.

Mr Rabbani had termed the passage of the resolutions a historic movement in the democratic struggle against the military dictatorship. He had also proposed to the chairman that the two resolutions should be put outside the house in the form of a plaque. The senate had passed a similar resolution in January last year.

The senators had also criticised the government for declaring Gen Musharraf’s farmhouse as sub-jail and demanded that he should be treated like any other criminal on trial.