Hijack Conviction now on Supreme Court
Pak Supreme Court (SC) is to hear country’s ex Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against the conviction for the ‘hijacking’ a commercial jet plane by attempting to stop it to land at Karachi. The jet was carrying the former Pakistani Army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The court admitted that appeal for hearing yesterday and issued a notice to the federal administration asking the authority to give its views on this case. Some sources said the larger SC bench that was hearing the appeal against an order barring Sharif from contesting elections; the same bench would hear the appeal in his hijack case.
In the court Sharif’s advocate Khawaja Haris said the appeal in this hijacking case must not be filed on right time since Sharif was deported twice as the apex court had given its verdict in this case. He added Nawaz was both the prime minister and defense minister of the country at that time. So, he had the power to pass instructions to divert Pervez Musharraf’s airliner because of an emergency situation.
12, October 1999, Sharif had dismissed Musharraf from chief of army fearing a martial coup. He appointed Ziauddin Butt as new army chief. Butt was the head of Pak spy agency ISI. That time, Musharraf was in Colombo. He boarded a business flight home. Afterward, Sharif ordered at Karachi airport authority to be barricaded on the runway to prevent Musharraf’s aircraft from landing. But the armed forces disregarded his orders, and refused to agree Musharraf’s sacking. As a result, the military took over the airport and cleared all barricades.
Eventually, the aircraft landed with evidently just few minutes of fuel for flying. Instantaneously after his arrival Musharraf staged a successful bloodless coup, toppled the elected government and took the power.
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- military convictions appealed to the supreme court
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