No govt bar on Musharraf going abroad: counsel

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has been given the liberty by the Supreme Court to prevent Pervez Musharraf from flying abroad bypassing any legal order vis-a-vis the high treason case being faced by him. However, the lawyer of Pervez Musharraf believes that as of today, the federal government has no legal ground to impede the movement of Pervez Musharraf because facing any criminal or civil case is never a reason to obstruct the free movement of an accused.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the Sindh High Court’s decision of removing Pervez Musharraf’s name from Exit Control List specifically mentioned in the judgement that the ‘order will not preclude the federation of Pakistan or the Special Court, seized of the proceedings under Article 6 of the constitution, against Respondent General (r) Pervez Musharraf from passing any legal order for regulating his custody or restricting his movement’. It is worth mentioning here that the custody and movement of an accused is regulated by the government but in Musharraf’s case the federal government had been relying on an interim order of Supreme Court which had no value once the original case was disposed off.

Faisal Chaudhary, the lawyer of Pervez Musharraf while talking to The News said that the judgement of Sindh High Court is self-executory and Musharraf can leave Pakistan any moment unless the federal government issues any ‘legal order’ barring his movement. He said that the assumption that Pervez Musharraf will not come back once he flies abroad cannot be termed a plausible reason because there are laws which are applicable if any accused flies abroad and doesn’t come back.

He said that Musharraf cannot be stopped from flying abroad on the assumption that he will not come back however, how the federal government behaves is yet to be seen. The lawyer was of the view that the federal government had no case in the Supreme Court that is why the SC has upheld the SHC judgement. He said that in the Sindh High Court too, the federal government had no case because it too refuge behind order of SC interim order which stated that Musharraf should be put on ECL. However, in the final judgement all the interim orders were merged but the SC did not write that the accused be put on ECL. The government’s plea was dismissed by SHC on the principle of merger that the final judgement of SC did not mention placing any of the accused on ECL. In the earlier case in the SC, the federation had given the statement in the court that it will initiate high treason case against Musharraf, hence the petition was disposed off but there was no specific mention of placing Musharraf on ECL in the detailed judgment.

Faisal said that instead of taking the decision of putting Musharraf off ECL on their shoulders, the government put it on the SC interim order. The lawyer stated that in the Supreme Court too the Honourable Chief Justice asked the federation to perform its duties without involving the courts. Faisal said that the CJ stated that regulating the custody of accused is the duty of government and if anybody is aggrieved, he knocks at the doors of the court but in this case, the government is dealing with it badly.