ISLAMABAD, Sept 2 PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah challenged on Wednesday the return by the Supreme Court office his petition in which he had sought a direction for the federal government to initiate criminal proceedings against Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason.

He described the return of his petition as usurpation of powers and rights of the court and requested it to recall the office order and entertain the petition under its jurisdiction on enforcement of fundamental rights.

On Aug 27, the court office had returned the petition by raising certain objections, that the petitioner had no locus standi because he was not an aggrieved person and that none of his fundamental rights had been infringed because no question of wider public interest was involved in the petition. The office had advised Mr Shah to approach a proper forum.

Moreover, Senator Shah had moved the petition on an order issued by the Supreme Court bench without waiting for a detailed judgment in which the Nov 3, 2007, emergency and sacking of the superior court judges were declared unconstitutional.

In the appeal, Senator Shah rejected the office order and said the entire nation was aggrieved because Mr Musharraf had violated the Constitution first by dismissing an elected government on Oct 12, 1999, and then by proclaiming a state of emergency in 2007.

The petitioner stated that he had no remedy but to approach the Supreme Court because Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had announced on the floor of the National Assembly that trial of Mr Musharraf was not doable.

“I want continuation of approach I had adopted after the Oct 12, 1999, military takeover,” Senator Shah told reporters.

In his original petition, Senator Shah on whose petition the Supreme Court had validated the Oct 12, 1999, military coup had challenged the requirement of Section 3 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973, which required the federal government to move a reference for any proceedings under high treason and said the provision was against Article 6 of the Constitution which did not command such a condition.

The petition alleged that the armed forces were not only ridiculed but also insulted by exploiting them for personal gains and they were made to climb the wall of the prime minister house on Oct 12 and used to maintain Gen (retd) Musharraf in his extra-constitutional usurpation of power.