ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf has moved an appeal before the Supreme Court, questioning the Dec 24 decision of the registrar’s office to return his petition seeking review of the landmark July 31, 2009, verdict about the imposition of emergency.

Advocate Mohammad Ibrahim Satti had filed the petition on Dec 23, claiming that the emergency had been clamped on advice by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz that the security of the country had been imperilled by some actions of some members of the superior judiciary.

The registrar’s office returned the petition the following day, saying it contained intemperate language against judges and that a second review could not be entertained.

The appeal is likely to be fixed before a judge in his chambers.

“If the matter is not taken up soon, we will file another application requesting the apex court to decide it as early as possible,” Advocate Satti told Dawn.

The applicant said a petitioner had every right to challenge an order of any court on the ground of bias of the judge.

He said that whether a review petition was competent could not be decided by the registrar and the court had to consider and decide about the competency of the proceedings.

“The question of competency or otherwise is the exclusive domain of the court and does not vest in the registrar under the Supreme Court Rules 1980,” the application said.

Referring to the objection that a review petition against the verdict had already been settled by the court, the petition said only that portion of the judgment was being challenged which related to retired Gen Musharraf.

The review petitions earlier filed by some high court judges were not entertained by the office, after which they filed civil miscellaneous appeals and the apex court came to the conclusions that they were not competent.

The appeal said the judges had challenged only those portions of the verdict that were prejudicial to their interest.