LAHORE, May 19: A bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking trial of President Gen Musharraf on high treason charges under Article 6 of the 1973 Constitution. The in-camera proceedings lasted for four hours.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry and Justice Akhtar Shabbir upheld the LHC office’s objection regarding the maintainability of this petition.

The office had objected that under Article 248 of the 1973 Constitution the actions of president could not be questioned in courts.

During hearing, a contingent of police was deputed outside the courtroom for security. The CJ had already banned the coverage of the proceedings in media. The petition challenging this ban was not marked for hearing by the LHC office.

Petitioner A K Dogar alleged that the president’s announcement on April 25 that he would continue to hold both the offices of COAS and president was tantamount to treachery under Article 6 of the 1973 Constitution.— Reporter