The Supreme Court (SC) formed a five-member bench Tuesday to hear a government’s appeal regarding the removal of former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
The apex court had already suspended Sindh High Court’s (SHC) verdict to allow Musharraf to fly abroad.
The five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Nasirul Mulk and comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Ijaz Afzal, will take up government’s plea on October 1.
On June 12, a two-judge SHC bench, comprising justices Mohammad Ali Mazhar and Shahnawaz, issued a 44-page verdict ordering the federal government to remove Musharraf’s name from the ECL.
The high court had declared that the parties opposing its ruling could move SC in the next 15 days and made it clear that till then Musharraf could not leave the country.
Musharraf had filed a petition in the court to remove his name from the ECL so that he can visit his ailing mother in the UAE.
The 70-year-old ruler, who returned to Pakistan in March last year ahead of the general elections ending his over four-year self-imposed exile, has faced multiple trials including one under the high-treason act for which he was placed under house arrest and barred from travelling abroad.
Musharraf has been indicted for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. He had seized power by overthrowing the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 and ruled till late 2008.
