ISLAMABAD: Former president retired General Pervez Musharraf has sought action against a soldier-turned-lawyer under the Official Secrets Act for filing a petition against him with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for alleged wrongdoings.

Colonel (retired) Inamur Rahim in the petition filed with the IHC in January this year sought directions to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to probe the alleged ‘wrongdoings’ by the former military ruler.

The petitioner alleged that as the chief of the army staff as well as the president of Pakistan Gen Musharraf violated his oath according to which he was duty bound to defend the interests of the motherland and protect the countrymen.

Referring to Musharraf’s book In the Line of Fire page 237 titled “Man Hunt”, the petitioner said the former military ruler had admitted the handing over of a large number of people to the US for minting money.

The lawyer filed petition against former president’s alleged wrongdoings

In his book, the former military ruler wrote: “We have caught many others, some are known to the world, some are not known; we have captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties of taking millions of dollars.”

The petitioner claimed that Dr Afia Siddiqui was one of those arrested people the former dictator had mentioned in his book who were handed over to the US.

The petitioner also alleged that Gen Musharraf “injected corruption into the senior hierarchy of the armed forces by allotting them plots over and above their entitlements.”

It added that when the petitioner approached NAB against the alleged corruption, the then NAB chairman, retired Admiral Fasih Bukhari, did not entertain his application.

The petitioner said Mr Bukhari in his remarks in the application stated: “From perusal of the allegations levelled in your application, it is evident that these allegations pertain to the tenure of ex-General Pervez Musharraf as COAS, President of Pakistan which do not fall under the ambit of National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, being serving army officer.”

After preliminary hearing of the petition, the court sought comments from Gen Musharraf and NAB.

In his reply submitted to the IHC through his counsel Akhtar Shah recently, Gen Musharraf stated that the contents of the petition were incorrect. He suggested that the “petitioner can be tried under the Official Secret Act.”

The reply also stated that “a filthy and ugly language has been used against ex-COAS and former president of Pakistan for which, the respondent (Gen Musharraf) reserves the right to sue the petitioner.” He requested the court to dismiss the petition.

In his reply submitted to the IHC, the prosecutor general NAB, K. K. Agha, stated: “NAB Ordinance 1999 does not cover the acts of corruption of any army officer during his tenure of service…the complaint was rightly returned to the petitioner to approach concerned army authorities under Pakistan Army Act.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2014