ISLAMABAD: Perturbed by the sudden removal of his petition against alleged wrongdoings by former president Pervez Musharraf from the cause list, a lawyer has written to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) seeking the appointment of a supervisory judge in pending cases against the former military dictator.

In January 2014, retired Lt-Col Inamur Rahim had filed the petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for directions to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to probe the alleged ‘wrongdoings’ by Gen Musharraf.

Last month, the petitioner submitted an application to the IHC requesting for the early hearing of the petition which was accepted and the registrar office fixed the case for November 30.

However, when Mr Rahim arrived in the court of Justice Athar Minallah on Nov 30, he learnt that his petition was not in the cause list.

Subsequently, the lawyer wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar with a request to appoint a supervisor judge as the apex court had done to ensure the timely completion of references against Nawaz Sharif after his removal from the office of the prime minister.

The lawyer stated that the military dictator had twice abrogated the Constitution, illegally detained over 90 judges and injected corruption in the senior military hierarchy by allotting them plots over and above their entitlement.

The letter stated that when the superior courts lifted a travel ban on Gen Musharraf, he was an absconder in the high treason, judges’ detention cases and the murder cases of Benazir Bhutto and a Lal Masjid cleric. It requested the CJP to issue directions for the early hearing of the petition under the supervision of a judge of the apex court.

The petition claimed that Musharraf’s book, In the Line of Fire, page 237 “Man Hunt” was a confession that the former military ruler handed over a large number of people to the US for minting money.

It may be noted that Gen Musharraf had submitted a reply to the petition in 2015 in which he suggested that Mr Rahim may be tried under the Official Secret Act.

His reply quoted a statement of the then prosecutor general NAB, K. K. Agha that “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 the Pakistan Army Act.”

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2017