LHC recommends full bench formation for Musharraf's plea

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday recommended the formation of a full bench to hear former President Pervez Musharraf's petition challenging the formation of a special court hearing the high treason case against him as well as his civil miscellaneous application that urged the high court to halt the treason proceedings.

The LHC took up the petitions the same day that a three-member special court is expected to announce its verdict in the long-drawn high treason case, despite an earlier Islamabad High Court (IHC) order stopping it from issuing the verdict it had reserved last month, reports Dawn news.

The IHC's order had come on November 27 - a day before the special court was set to announce its verdict.

On Monday, the LHC issued a notice to the federal government to submit a written reply on Musharraf's application in which he asked the high court to declare the proceedings pending before the special court and all actions against him - from initiation of the high treason complaint to the appointment of the prosecutor and constitution of the trial court - as unconstitutional.

On December 14, in an application filed through advocates Khawaja Ahmad Tariq Raheem and Azhar Siddique, Musharraf asked the LHC to stay the trial at the special court until his earlier petition pending adjudication by the high court is decided.

In that petition, the former leader had challenged the formation of a special court holding his trial under charges of high treason and legal flaws committed in the procedure.

The high treason trial of the former military dictator for clamping the state of emergency on November 3, 2007, has been pending since December 2013.

He was booked in the treason case in December 2013.

Musharraf was indicted on March 31, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year.

However, due to litigation at appellate forums, the trial of the former military dictator lingered on and he left Pakistan in March 2016.