ISLAMABAD: As the date for hearing of petitions seeking prosecution of retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on treason charges draws near, one petitioner has approached the Supreme Court with a plea to restrain Zahid Hamid from acting as law minister till the court decides the case.

In a related development, Attorney General Muneer A. Malik said he wanted to write to the government a letter seeking its instructions on the petitions against the former military ruler. At the last hearing on June 6, Ahmad Raza Kasuri, the counsel for Mr Musharraf, had requested the court to adjourn the proceedings till the attorney general submitted a statement about the new government’s stance on the case. The request was made against the backdrop of an earlier position taken by the caretaker government of Mir Hazar Khan Khaso.

In a written statement submitted to the apex court on April 22, former attorney general Irfan Qadir said the issue of prosecuting Gen Musharraf should best be left for the elected government because a decision taken by the caretakers would become controversial in the long-term both for political parties and state institutions.

“I will put before the Supreme Court the stand of the government when the court resumes the hearing on June 24,” Muneer Malik told reporters in his office.

Petitioner Sheikh Ahsanuddin, a former president of the Rawalpindi High Bar Association, alleged that Zahid Hamid was one of the collaborators and abettors in imposition of the Nov 3, 2007, emergency because he was law minister at that time. A restraining order against Mr Hamid, he said, would help the new government of Nawaz Sharif to form an independent and fair opinion on the petitions.

He also requested the court to order sealing and taking into custody all records available with the law ministry pertaining to the period between the imposition of emergency Nov 3 and its lifting on Dec 16, 2007. The office concerned should be directed to ensure that the records are not manipulated, tampered with, changed or misplaced, the petition said.

Mr Ahsanuddin recalled that Mr Hamid was also law minister when the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and the oath of office of judges had been issued. The law minister, he said, could not distance himself from the Nov 3 action because all notifications about the emergency had been issued by the law ministry on his directions and, therefore, he was part of the unconstitutional act.

These actions of Mr Musharraf were declared unconstitutional and illegal by the Supreme Court in its July 31, 2009, landmark judgment.

Mr Hamid, the petitioner said, had been inducted into the cabinet of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and then given the portfolio of law minister with a mala fide intention.

The petitioner recalled that Mr Hamid had been alleged to be one of the abettors and collaborators in a petition against Mr Musharraf also pending before the apex court.

“Now when the constitutional petitions are at a final stage before the apex court, the person (Hamid) who was the brainchild and responsible along with Gen Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and his cabinet behind the issuance of the Nov 3 emergency, has now been inducted as law minister with mala fide intention only to provide a safe way to Musharraf,” the petition regretted.