ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will decide the fate of a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Zahid Hamid against the special court order to include him as an accused in the high treason case on Friday.

Hearing a petition filed by Mr Hamid on Monday, Justice Athar Minallah observed that another petition against the order of the special court was pending before him and he had already issued notice to the attorney general. The judge clubbed Mr Hamid’s petition with the earlier one and fixed them for hearing on Friday when the attorney general would brief the court on the maintainability of the matter.

The judge remarked that the special court had a special status and before deciding the maintainability of the petitions it was necessary to hear the attorney general.

It may be noted that the special court on November 21 directed the federal government to include Zahid Hamid, who was the law minister in the cabinet of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz and former chief justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar as abettors of Gen Musharraf for imposing an emergency in November 2007.

Advocate Taufiq Asif, a Rawalpindi-based lawyer, was the first to challenge the order of the special court in the IHC.

Khawaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Mr Hamid, adopted before Justice Minallah that the high treason case was limited to the extent of Gen Musharraf as the prosecution had only named him as an accused and laid evidence against him.

Under the provisions of Section 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment (Special Courts) Act 1976, it is the prerogative of the federal government to specify not only the precise case to be tried by the special court but also the names of the accused, he contended.

The petition of Mr Hamid claimed that there was no evidence on record to prove that the petitioner had facilitated any of Gen Musharraf’s acts or the removal of any judge.

It claimed that the special court could not go beyond his scope as it was constituted specifically to try Gen Musharraf for five charges as forwarded by the federal government.

The petition requested the court to set aside the special court’s order.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2014