Islamabad - A local court Thursday turned down an application of former military dictator general (Retd) Pervez Musharraf seeking exemption from his appearance before the court in murder case of former prayer leader of Lal Masjid Abdul Rasheed Ghazi and his mother Sahiba Khatoon.
After rejecting his plea, additional district and sessions judge Wajid Ali Khan summoned Musharraf to appear before the court in this matter on March 10.
Besides this, the court also reserved its verdict on two other applications of Musharraf in which he had challenged jurisdiction of the court and its summoning orders.
Tariq Asad Advocate and Malik Abdul Haq Advocate appeared before the court on the behalf of plaintiff Haroon Rashid Ghazi and Major (Retd) Akhtar Shah represented the former president in this case. Despite court’s earlier orders, Musharraf did not appear before the court. However, his two guarantors were present in the court.
During the hearing, Musharraf’s counsel submitted an application seeking exemption for his client and contended that former president could not appear before the court due to two reasons. Narrating the reasons, he stated that first reason is that doctors had not allowed him to travel and second reason is severe security threats to his life. He maintained that according to the report of intelligence agencies, various terrorist organizations, including Ghazi force could launch attack on his client during his appearance before the court.
He maintained that Musharraf would come immediately, if doctors permitted him to travel and government took appropriate measures to provide security to his client.
Musharraf’s counsel adopted before the court that insistence on the appearance of his client was being made to kill him.
He also submitted before the court Musharraf’s medical report which was prepared by five doctors of Agha Khan Hospital Karachi and contended that his client could not appear before the court due to illness and security concerns.
He was of the view that terrorists had also targeted the F-8 district courts last year. Therefore, he was of the view that the same place is not safer for the appearance of former president before the court.
The counsel for plaintiff Tariq Asad strongly opposed accused’s application seeking exemption and raised objections in this connection. While raising objections, the applicant’s lawyer Tariq produced a CD showing the former president was engaged in dancing in a function in Karachi. He opined that Musharraf was not appearing before the court in the pretext of illness and security concerns but he could attend the function in Karachi despite the presence of both the reasons.
The counsel contended that all are equal before the law and no accused could be granted exemption from appearing before the court only for pain in his back. After hearing arguments of both the sides, the court rejected Musharraf’s application seeking exemption from appearance before the court for one day.
The court also directed Musharraf to appear before the court on March 10 and deferred the hearing. It is pertinent to mention here that the court had summoned former military ruler for 32 times but he did not turn up even a single time. Now, the court will take up this matter again on March 10 for further proceedings in this regard.