ISLAMABAD, Sept 3 Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said on Thursday a parliamentary resolution or directive by a superior court was not required for launching criminal proceedings against Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf for treason.

“In the event of dilly-dallying by the government in registering a case, even an ordinary citizen can approach a superior court for the trial of Gen (retd) Musharraf on charges of high treason for trampling the Constitution,” he told journalists at the Supreme Court.

He said Gen (retd) Musharraf had confessed to violating the Constitution on Nov 18, 2007, when he admitted in an interview to a foreign news channel that he had never done anything “unconstitutional” except for imposing emergency rule on Nov 3 that year.

He said the Supreme Court had held in unequivocal terms in its judgement on July 31 that the proclamation of emergency by Gen (retd) Musharraf was a violation of the Constitution.

He said Gen (retd) Musharraf's confession was enough to implicate him in a high treason case and there was no need to waste time in debating the issue.

He said the order of Nov 3 began with the words “I Gen Musharraf” which was enough to justify lodging a case against him.