ISLAMABAD, Sept 7 A faction of the Communist Party of Pakistan on Monday requested the Supreme Court to order the commencement of a trial on charges of high treason against former president Pervez Musharraf and 481 others, including former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, under Article 6 of the Constitution.

Engineer Jameel Ahmed Malik, chairman of a faction of the CPP, filed a petition under Article 184(3), read with Article 6, which said that the former president was not the only one who abrogated and subverted the Constitution when he proclaimed emergency on Nov 3, 2007. He contended that others who were equally responsible for subversion of the Constitution were the then prime minister, governors and chief ministers, speaker Amir Hussain, and chairman of the Senate Mohammedmian Soomro, 75 federal ministers, 245 members of the National Assembly, 97 Senators, 65 judges of apex and high courts along with the former chief justice of Pakistan, Abdul Hameed Dogar, three generals - Pervez Musharraf, the current Chief of Army Staff, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Tariq Majid, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, 12 lieutenant-generals and one major-general.

He also listed a Brigadier, Aasim Salim Bajwa, five chief and home secretaries, five inspectors-generals and DPOs, four federal secretaries and legal experts like Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada and Malik Muhammad Qayyum as being guilty.

The directors-general of the Inter Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau were also named as respondents for abetting and aiding the abrogation and subversion of the Constitution.

Engineer Jameel accused Mr Musharraf and his collaborators of “disgracing and subverting” the Constitution and called for their immediate trial or “alternatively a directive be given to the federal government for initiating criminal proceeding on our party's complaint” against them under Section 3 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act of 1973.

He said his party had come forward to launch a complaint against “usurper Musharraf and his collaborators” because the Pakistan People's Party “has, in reality, compromised with Musharraf”.