ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Law and Justice announced on Thursday that the government would file a reference against one of the judges who tried Pakistan’s former military ruler, General (r) Pervez Musharraf, in the Supreme Judicial Council — a constitutional body that is authorized to hear cases of misconduct against members of the country’s superior judiciary.
Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth, who is also the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, authored the detailed judgment in the treason trial against Musharraf, instructing the authorities to “apprehend the fugitive/convict” to “ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law.” However, if the former army chief was “found dead,” his “corpse” should “be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be hanged for 03 days.”
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, the law minister questioned the authority that empowered the judge to make such “an unprecedented, despicable and wrong observation.” He reminded the media of a 1994 judgment issued by the former chief justice, Nasim Hasan Shah, that deemed public hanging against the country’s constitution.
The law minister added that Justice Seth was “mentally unfit” to be part of the superior judiciary and should be restrained from working in that capacity.
“This is an attempt to take Pakistan into dark ages,” he said after announcing that the government would file a reference against the judge in the Supreme Judicial Council.
Earlier in the day, Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director-general of the military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), also issued a brief statement in Rawalpindi, expressing his reservations at the language used in the detailed verdict against Musharraf, saying that it was against basic human, religious and cultural norms.
He said he had discussed the nature and character of war in his previous media briefings while highlighting that Pakistan was facing the specter of hybrid war.
Ghafoor said the country’s armed forces were keeping an eye on the situation and knew about the internal and external enemies.
He maintained that the army was not just an institution but a family, adding that it had sacrificed a great deal to bring about internal stability in the country and would not allow anyone to undermine the gains that were made.
The DG ISPR said there were elements who wanted to “provoke us” and trigger “internecine conflict” in the country. However, he noted that the armed forces were fully aware of how to defend Pakistan and secure their own institutional integrity.
Ghafoor revealed that the army chief had discussed the detailed verdict in Musharraf’s treason trial with the prime minister, though he said the “decisions” made during the conversation would be announced by the government.
He also urged the people of Pakistan to trust the country’s armed forces.
Government to file reference against judge who wrote Musharraf verdict
https://arab.news/n4aqg
Government to file reference against judge who wrote Musharraf verdict
- The law minister calls Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth “mentally unfit” to be part of superior judiciary
- Military spokesman also expressed reservation at the language of the detailed verdict
Pakistani man convicted in US in political assassination plot tied to Iranian paramilitary
- Asif Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses
- He testified he met a Revolutionary Guard operative who gave him countersurveillance training, assignments
NEW YORK: A Pakistani business owner who tried to hire hit men to kill a US politician was convicted Friday in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil.
As the Iran war unfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a US court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign — a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed.
A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges.
The verdict after only a couple hours of deliberations followed a weeklong trial that included remarkable testimony from Merchant himself.
Merchant told the jury he was carrying out instructions from a contact in the Islamic Republic’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, the handler never specified a target but broached names including then-candidate Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador who was also in the race for a time.
The Iranian government has denied trying to kill US officials.
The nascent plot fell apart after Merchant showed an acquaintance what he had in mind by using objects on a napkin to depict a shooting at a rally. He asked the man to help him hire assassins. Instead, he was introduced to undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as had the acquaintance.
Merchant told the supposed hit men he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan.
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement released after the conviction.
Merchant’s attorney, Avraham Moskowitz, didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking comment.
Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses. He has two families, in Pakistan and Iran, and he sometimes visited the US for his garment business.
Merchant testified that he met a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative about three years ago. The contact gave him countersurveillance training and assignments including the assassination scheme, Merchant said.
He maintained that he had to do his handler’s bidding to protect loved ones in Iran. The defendant said he reluctantly went through the motions but thought he’d be arrested and explain his situation to authorities before anyone was killed.
“I was going along with it,” he said, speaking in Urdu through a court interpreter.
Prosecutors emphasized that Merchant admitted taking steps to enact the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the US considers a foreign terrorist organization, and he didn’t proactively go to authorities.
Instead, he was packing for a flight to Pakistan when he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials said it appeared the Butler gunman acted alone but that they had been tracking a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, a claim that the Islamic Republic called “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
When Merchant subsequently spoke to FBI agents to explore the possibility of a cooperation agreement, he didn’t say he had acted out of fear for his family.
Prosecutors argued that he didn’t back up a defense of acting under duress. Merchant sought to persuade jurors he simply didn’t think the agents would believe him because they seemed to “think that I am some type of super-spy,” which he said he was “absolutely not.”
