Former Pakistani PM Gilani demands judges be tried with Musharraf for treason

In May 2000,a 12-judge bench of the Supreme Court had unanimously validated the October 1999 coup and granted Musharraf executive and legislative authority for three years. Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of the members of this bench.

Without naming any member of the current judiciary,Gilani said,“Those who had validated the coup should also be tried for violating Article 6 of the Constitution.” Article 6 covers high treason.

Gilani dared to raise an issue that is hardly spoken about by other Pakistani politicians.

Last year,a bench led by Chief Justice Chaudhry had disqualified Gilani as premier after he refused to reopen graft cases against his boss,President Asif Ali Zardari.

“The PML-N today has announced it will proceed against Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution for imposing emergency in November 2007. Why should he not be tried for his coup in 1999 along with those who had endorsed it?” asked Gilani.

The former premier further said,“The Constitution does not allow any degree of transgression,whatsoever,in the domain of one institution by other institution or institutions. The authors of the Constitution were aware of the ramifications,therefore they underscored the importance of the observance of the trichotomy of power in absolute terms.”

Musharraf chargesheeted in Bhutto assassination case

Islamabad: Compounding his legal woes,Pakistani investigators today included ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in the list of main accused who conspired to assassinate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. The Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) submitted a chargesheet in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi. The FIA presented a four-point chargesheet against Musharraf in the ATC,accusing him of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate Bhutto. Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack outside Rawalpindi on December 27,2007,after she addressed an election campaign rally. The chargesheet submitted contained the statements of four witnesses,including an American journalist Marc Siegel,as well as Bhutto’s own statement.