ISLAMABAD - General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on 3rd November 2007 proclaimed emergency and issued Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) as Chief of Army Staff, while signed Oath of Office (Judges) Order in his capacity as President of Pakistan.
Khalid Mehmood Qureshi, head of the FIA investigation team, Thursday told a three-judge Special Court presided over by Justice Faisal Arab while recording his statement.  Other members of the bench included Justice Tahira Safdar and Justice Yawar Ali. The bench has been hearing the case since December 24, 2013 against Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution for subverting and abrogating the Constitution.
Khalid said: “The FIA team is unanimous that Pervez Musharraf proclaimed emergency and issued PCO as Chief of Army Staff and signed Oath of Office (Judges) Order as President of Pakistan.”
Secretary Interior Shahid Khan, the complainant in the case, also stated that Musharraf had imposed the emergency as COAS and not as President of Pakistan.
All the prosecution witnesses have recorded their statements. Khalid further told that the FIA investigative team contacted every relevant person in the Prime Minister Secretariat, President Secretariat, Cabinet Division and Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defence and made all efforts to obtain all the information pertaining to the 3rd November emergency.
He said that the team concluded unanimously that there is a substantial evidence that Musharraf is responsible for issuing emergency, PCO and the Oath of the office (Judges) order and all the orders thereof. It was also unanimous that Musharraf by holding constitution in abeyance had subverted the constitution and, therefore, recommended that a compliant should be registered against him under High Treason (Punishment) Act 1973.
Khalid Qureshi told that on 6th December 2013 he along with Hussain Asghar, another member of the FIA team, met the former dictator in the presence of Col (retd) Illyas, advisor to Musharraf security, in his farm at Chak Shahzad. They showed Musharraf Proclamation of Emergency, PCO and Oath of Office (Judges) order that bear his signature but he refused to record his statement. Upon that defence counsel Shaukat Hayat raised objection saying the meeting was held on 06-12-13 much later submitting the inquiry report. However, the court overruled the objections.
Khalid said: “The investigation team also inquired from the current and the incumbent office bearers at Prime Minister Secretariat and Cabinet Division, but they replied that the material regarding 3rd November is not on record, while the President Secretariat told them that all the documents pertaining to Emergency, PCO and other orders have been removed.
“We also wrote to Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum, ex-attorney general, Masood Alam Rizvi, the then cabinet secretary, Mohsin Hafeez, former secretary to President, Syed Kamal Shah, ex-interior secretary, Justice (retd) Ajmal Mian, ex-secretary law, Khalid Saeed the then secretary to PM and Hamid Khan, former chief commissioners regarding the 3rd November action. According to the Rules of Business, these officials should have the record if the summary, recommendations or proposals were sent to Musharraf for proclamation of emergency.
He said that the investigation team inquired from them whether they recommended or proposed or sent the summary to Pervez Musharraf for imposing emergency. They all categorically denied that any of the situations i.e. breakdown of law and order, cases in the courts and inability of the government to function were never communicated to the Prime Minister Secretariat. He said on this direction Najaf Quli Mirza, the then Director FIA Sindh, recorded the statement of Sharif-ud-Din Pirzada and Dr. Ishratul Ibad, Governor Sindh. He said that on 3rd November 2007 Pirzada was the law advisor to the federal government. All the documents procured and the statements recorded were submitted to the Ministry of Interior through Director General FIA. Ten progress reports were submitted to the Ministry of Interior and three additional reports were also submitted on the requisition of the parliamentarians. The hearing was adjourned till September 16. On the next date the defence team would cross-examined Khalid Qureshi.