Thaindian News

Islamabad, Aug 3 (IANS) Pakistan’s parliament can try former president Pervez Musharraf, whose declaration of an emergency and sacking of the Supreme Court judges Nov 3, 2007 has been invalidated by the apex court, the country’s top law officer said Monday.
“Parliament is supreme in this issue. If a resolution for conducting the trial of the former president is moved in parliament, after its approval, the government would be bound to act on the decision because parliament is the supreme law-making body,” Attorney General Latif Khosa told reporters here.

Holding that Musharraf had acted extra-judicially, illegally and unconstitutionally, the Supreme Court Friday termed as null and void the steps he had taken Nov 3, 2007.

A 14-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, however, stopped short of censuring Musharraf as had been demanded in a petition the court was hearing against the declaration of the emergency.

This was not surprising considering that Friday morning Chaudhry had said while concluding the hearing that the court would not pass a verdict that would trigger chaos in the country.

He made the remark after Khosa said the verdict should be such that it did not harm the “system”.

On being queried as to what the “system” was, Khosa replied that this included the president, the prime minister, parliament and the provincial assemblies.

The court had summoned Musharraf, who is currently in London on a lecture tour, to appear before it July 29 in person or through his lawyer but he failed do so.

“Determining responsibility for the steps taken on Nov 3, 2007 is necessary,” Chaudhry observed July 22 before issuing summons.

Chaudhry, who was one of the 80-odd Supreme Court and high court judges sacked, had been reinstated in March after a bruising lawyers’ agitation.

Musharraf had sacked the higher judiciary after it refused to take fresh oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) he promulgated along with the emergency.

The emergency had been declared just as the Supreme Court was to deliver its verdict on the constitutionality of Musharraf’s re-election in October 2007.

It had been contended that the same parliament and provincial assemblies that had elected Musharraf in 2002 had re-elected him in 2007 and this was unconstitutional.