Pakistan Musharraf’s Challenge High-treason Court

Islamabad, Feb 5, IRNA -- Pakistan former president Pervez Musharraf has challenged the authority of the special court constituted to try him for treason after he was served arrest warrant at a military hospital, police sources said. A three-member special court issued bailable arrest warrant last month after Musharraf failed to appear despite repeated orders. The Islamabad police served the warrant to Musharraf at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi city, where he is hospitalized. The former president personally wrote a note saying he does not believe that the special court has the right to try him. He handed the note to the police when he was served notice on Tuesday. Defense lawyers have hinted Musharraf could appear before the court later this week. The court is likely to frame charges of high treason whenever Musharraf personally appears in the court. Musharraf has been charged with suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. Musharraf overthrew the government of current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999 and ruled until 2008. His lawyers had claimed that Nawaz is using the treason case to get revenge. The 70-year-old ex-commando is the first former military dictator in Pakistan’s history to face trial for treason./end