Outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa played a crucial role in the treason case against former military ruler General (r) Pervez Musharraf.
The former president was sentenced to death in a high treason case by a special court in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The treason case which began in 2013 remained pending due to various reasons.
It was learnt that CJP Khosa was displeased with the undue interference by high courts to halt treason proceedings in the last three weeks.
A three-judge special court, led by Justice Faisal Arab, on November 21, 2014, had directed the federal government to include the names of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former law minister Zahid Hamid and former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as co-accused in the treason case. The proceedings were later suspended for a couple of years because of the order.
In February 2016, the Supreme Court, led by CJP Khosa, had set aside the special court’s order by directing that the trial against Musharraf be concluded.
In the meantime, the former army chief had gone abroad for medical treatment. Several judges who had been part of the special court have either retired or been elevated to the apex court.
Soon after taking charge as the CJP, Justice Khosa had taken up the matter regarding the delay in the trial.
He had, on March 25, referred to the punishment given to dictator Oliver Cromwell whose skeleton had been hanged after his death, observing that an accused was deliberately not appearing before the trial court and questioning if the court was helpless.
In April, a three-member bench led by the CJP himself had directed the special court to proceed under the law by concluding the matter. It had held that, if the accused failed to turn up, he would lose his right to an audience.
Following the SC’s decision, the matter was preceded in the special court.
After the retirement of Justice Tahira Safdar, CJP had nominated judge Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth to preside over the special court.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) chief justice’s bold verdicts also irked the security establishment. The same judge had also set aside trials of military courts’ convicts, and his judgement had also rescued Pakistan before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan case. Recently, the PHC CJ had declared unconstitutional the functioning of scores of internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
