Pakistan court indicts former Prez Pervez Musharraf for treason

For the first time, a former chief of army staff and President of Pakistan was indicted by a special court for high treason on Monday for imposing emergency and subverting the Constitution. General (retd) Pervez Musharraf pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Justice Faisal Arab who heads the special court asked Justice Tahira Safdar to read out each of the five charges to Musharraf who appeared even before the court time at 9.30 am in a wall of security. The court had issued non bailable arrest warrants to be executed if he failed to appear today of his own volition. There was speculation that the former military dictator would not appear since he was admitted to the ICU last night in the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) where he has been since 2 January. His entire team of lawyers led by Sharifuddin Pirzada boycotted the proceedings and a new lawyer Dr Faroogh Naseem, also a senator from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) told the court he would represent Musharraf from now on. All he knew about the case was what had appeared in the media, he said as he was engaged last night and needed time to go through a bunch of documents.