Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel was heading the bench hearing the high-profile case.
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A Pakistani court on Tuesday ordered confiscation of all the bank accounts and properties of former President Pervez Musharraf for not appearing in a high treason case, lawyer said.
“The court in its ruling, ordered the revenue and other authorities to confiscate the details of the former president’s property”, Geo News reported.
“According to law, the accused can not (go on trial) in absentia”, Miankhel said, according to English daily Dawn newspaper.
Court has also ordered State Bank of Pakistan to freeze all accounts of Parvez Musharraf.
He returned in 2013, after which he was barred from leaving the country while facing multiple lawsuits – a travel ban that was lifted so he could seek medical care.
On the occasion, Musharraf’s legal counsel informed the court that his client was ailing and now not present in Pakistan.
Musharraf left the country on March 18, soon after the Supreme Court upheld the Sindh high court’s directions to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
Musharraf faces multiple charges including treason and murder for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Earlier, the court also seized the surety bonds submitted by the former President’s guarantor, Rashid Qureshi, and ordered him to submit a sum of Rs 2.5 million as security deposit to the Registrar of the special court.
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The three-member panel of judges cited Musharraf’s continued personal absence in the high-treason trial despite repeated notices. “That verdict can not be obtained till case is concluded, so the court said we can not proceed unless we record the statement of the accused in the court and signed [by him] before the court”, said Kasuri.
