Defence counsel Farogh Naseem on Thursday alleged that the documents relating to the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007 were destroyed since they were not produced in court.
Continuing his arguments in the special court trying former President General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf for high treason, Dr. Naseem said that papers which had advice from those who abetted Musharraf in the imposition of emergency for instance, letters from then Prime Minister Minister Shaukat Aziz and others were not presented. The prosecution had earlier said that no record was available relating to the abettors in the offence of high treason.
Dr. Naseem said the prosecution was against giving the defence the inquiry report by the Federal Investigation Agency which was the basis of the high treason trial and without that report, the entire proceedings were a nullity. Arguing that the special court does have powers to order that the report can be given to the defence, he asked, “Where in the law does it say that it can be excluded from the case?” He stated that the prosecution was not coming to the court with clean hands. The same inquiry report was leaked to the press and it was being discussed on TV. He said what is not expressly prohibited is permitted, arguing that the report should be made available.
In the interests of a fair trial, all the relevant documents have to be submitted, he pointed out. He also added that the defence would have to examine if at every stage approval was taken by the competent authority or not in preparing the report. Dr. Naseem said due process was not followed in all this and cited case law from the US to show that withholding or suppressing information would mean overturning the trial. He said exculpating evidence cannot be kept out just because the prosecution claims it does not have the report.
The arguments in this application are expected to be completed on Friday.
