ISLAMABAD: During cross-examination by the legal team of former president retired General Pervez Musharraf, Interior Secretary Shahid Khan admitted that he had not incorporated the issue of military coup of October 1999 in the charges levelled in the treason case because of a ‘time constraint’.

Khan has already testified before the special court, headed by Sindh High Court Justice Faisal Arab, that after assuming charge of his post in October 2013, he received the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and filed the complaint against Gen Musharraf on five charges.

When asked by Farogh Nasim whether it was his duty to incorporate the October 1999 coup in the complaint, Khan replied, “it is correct to suggest that it was my duty to include the October 1999 military coup under Article 6, but I did not have time to do so.”

Also read: SHC rejects Musharraf's review petition

“When I assumed charge as interior secretary on October 13, the matter had already been probed and the JIT then submitted its report to my office,” said Khan.

Shahid Khan says he didn’t include 1999 coup charges due to ‘time constraint’

Barrister Nasim then asked him whether he believed that the July 5, 1977 military coup — when General Ziaul Haq toppled the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — was also an act of treason; the interior secretary said this might fall under Article 6 of the Constitution. However, when Nasim said, “Do you know that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also aided and abetted General Zia in the imposition of martial law in July 1977,” Mr Khan simply replied “I don’t know”.

Nasim then asked Mr Khan, “Why did the interior secretary not contemplate the successive military coups of 1958, 1977 and 1999 while launching the complaint against General Musharraf,” to which the interior secretary replied, “No inquiry was ordered against these coups, nor were these matters brought before me”.

“Are you aware of the storming of the Supreme Court in 1997 and was that act not a subversion of the Constitution,” asked Barrister Nasim. In reply, Khan simply said, “I do not have the facts of that occurrence.”

During Wednesday’s proceedings, lead prosecutor Mohammad Akram Sheikh raised several objections over some of the questions Farogh Nasim put to the witness and even joked that the counsel might ask a question related to the Jallianwala Bagh incident, which took place in 1919.

Also read: SC suspends SHC order in Musharraf case

In response, Nasim said the country had witnessed an identical incident just last week in Model Town, Lahore.

The special court then adjourned proceedings until Thursday, when Farogh Nasim would continue his cross-examination of the interior secretary.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2014