ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has summoned former President Pervez Musharraf to explain his 2007 firing of several dozen independent-minded judges. Wednesday’s court notice allows Musharraf to send a lawyer in his place.
The case, brought up in petitions challenging Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule and firing of the judges that year, could lay the groundwork for future action — even a trial — against the one-time military ruler.
It could also rattle Pakistan’s political scene at a time when the US wants the nuclear-armed nation to focus on fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taleban along the Afghan border.
Pakistan’s Attorney General Sardar Latif Khosa confirmed the court order. He said the federal government would not defend the actions taken by Musharraf on Nov. 3, 2007, when faced with growing challenges to his rule, he declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and dismissed the judges.
Musharraf is currently staying in London with his family.
He could not immediately be reached for comment. The next hearing in the case is on July 29.
Wasi Zafar, a law minister during Musharraf’s rule, said the retired general could appear before the Supreme Court either through his lawyer or in person.
“If he does not do it, the court can initiate proceedings against him in his absence,” he said.
The former army chief seized power in a 1999 military coup and became a critical, and criticized, US ally following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that sparked the American-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
In early 2007, Musharraf dismissed the Supreme Court’s chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. That triggered mass protests led by lawyers that damaged Musharraf’s popularity.
The court managed to bring Chaudhry back, but Musharraf declared the emergency, tossing out Chaudhry and around 60 other judges.
