Federal Minister for Law & Justice Barrister Dr.Muhammad Farogh Naseem,Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information & Broadcasting, Dr, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar addressing a Press Conference. INP Photo

ISLAMABAD: In the wake of Special Court’s detailed verdict in Musharraf treason case, the government on Thursday decided to file a reference against Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

Considering the observations of Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth in the case, Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem said the government would plead in the SJC that the judge should be restrained from performing his constitutional duties at the earliest as he, after passing such an observation, had no authority to hold such an esteem judicial position.

“I request senior judges of the Supreme and high courts to restrain him from carrying out any administrative and judicial duties as his observation shows that he is mentally ill and incompetent,” he added.

Expressing concern over para 66 of the detailed judgment of the Musharraf case, he said the government had decided to file a reference in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the author of the verdict under Article 209 of the Constitution.

The laws relating to the high treason, including Article 6 of the High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973, and The Criminal Law Amendment (Special Court) Act, 1976, he said, did not permit any judge to pass such kind of observation that a person’s corpse should be dragged at a Chowk and then hanged there for three days.

“It is beyond my understanding that under what authority a judge can give such despicable and unethical observation in a case,” he remarked. It was not only a deviation from the Constitution, but also counter-productive for the people’s confidence in judiciary, he added.

The Federal Government also decided to file a petition with the Supreme Court for setting aside the verdict given by the Special Court against former president Pervez Musharraf in the high treason case.

The government had a serious concern over the mode and manner of the trial, and the way it was concluded in haste ignoring procedural and constitutional flaws, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Barrister Shahzad Akbar said.

Flanked by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Minister for Law and Justice Dr Farogh Naseem, he told the media here that the government was deliberating upon the reasons for the hasty conclusion of the case. The rushed manner, in which the case was wrapped up, negated the spirit of criminal jurisprudence, he added.

“Trial in absentia cannot be conducted and it has never happened in the history of Pakistan,” he remarked.

He said the Federal Government, and the Lahore and Islamabad high courts had pointed out that there were serious procedural and constitutional issues that needed to be rectified, but the same were totally ignored by the Special Court.

He said former Chief Justice of Pakistan Naseem Hasan Shah had given a judgment in the past that the ‘public hanging’ was against the Constitution and Islam and cited the “universal declaration of human rights in Islam” and Article 14 of the Constitution relating to the fundamental right of the dignity of a human being in that regard.—APP