ISLAMABAD: The registrar office of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday returned the petition of former president retired General Pervez Musharraf he had filed before the court on Tuesday seeking his trial in high treason case under Army Act.

The registrar office held that since the special court, seized with his high treason trial, has rejected the identical petition for transferring the high treason case to the military court therefore being the appellate forum such petition could only be filed in the Supreme Court.

Three members bench of the special court headed by Justice Faisal Arab of Sindh High Court (SHC) on February 21, 2014 rejected the plea for transferring the high treason case to the military court.

In it ruling, the special court said: “the offences under the High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973 are exclusively triable by the special court established under the Criminal Law Amendment (Special Court) Act, 1976 as its Section 3 (2) ousts the jurisdiction of all other courts.”

It may be mentioned that prior to the commencement of special court’s proceedings on December 23, 2014 IHC single bench had already dismissed the same petition.

IHC Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan had held that the special court had taken cognizance of the matter and that Article 6 of the constitution under which the federal government had filed the complaint against Musharraf has overriding effect on the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 hence the trial could not be transferred to the military court.

In the petition, Gen Musharraf through his lawyers contended that he imposed the emergency on November 3, 2007 as Chief of Army Staff therefore the military court was the relevant forum for his trial for any alleged offence.

The petition said three retired military officers -- Gen Khalid Muneer Khan, Gen Muzaffar Afzal and Gen Khalid Zaheer -- who retired between 2004 and 2008 from the army and now facing prosecution under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had their cases transferred to the army court under Section 7 of the Pakistan Army Act.

It further said that the government was trying to deprive Gen Musharraf of his fundamental right to a fair trial as enshrined in Article 10-A and Article 25 of the constitution by not transferring his case to the military court.