PML-N to table resolution against Musharraf after Nawaz`s return

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 9 A resolution seeking trial of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution is likely to come for discussion in the National Assembly after PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif returns home from abroad.

The National Assembly session, which began on Aug 3, might last till Aug 18 if there was no additional item on agenda, especially the 37 ordinances which the Supreme Court has said should be taken to parliament.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that his government would try the former military dictator for high treason if the lower house unanimously adopted a resolution demanding such action.

Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who had declared that the PML-N would move a resolution against the retired general for subverting the constitution, has been keeping quiet on the issue.

But PML-N's spokesman Siddiqul Farooq told Dawn on Sunday that the party would definitely move the resolution, but it would like to consult other political parties inside and outside parliament before doing so.

According to him, PML-N believed that legally, there was no need for parliament to adopt such a resolution after the Supreme Court ruling that nullified the Nov 3, 2007, emergency proclaimed by Gen (retd) Musharraf as army chief.

Mr Farooq asserted that his party “will move the resolution after PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif returns home from London”.

Senator Syed Zafar Ali Shah, also of the PML-N, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court soon after the October 12, 1999, military coup, told Dawn that it was for his party to take a decision about the resolution, but as far as he was concerned he would move the court if nobody else did. On the other hand, PPP's Chief Whip Syed Khurshid Shah had said that his party will not like to become a party to any such move because of its policy of reconciliation.

The 16-month-old PPP-led coalition government had in the past been sidestepping the demand to invoke Article 6 to try General Musharraf for high treason.

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