The Supreme Court has been moved for registration of a treason case against former president Pervez Musharraf and putting him on the exit control list (ECL). Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of Lal Masjid, where an operation in July 2007 killed several innocent people and students, filed the petition on Monday.

In his petition, Aziz submitted that the operation was conducted on the orders of the former president, and that such a person should not only be proceeded against under the law, but also put on the ECL. Musharraf had been facing several cases in the courts, and he was on a preventive bail, added the petitioner, who also made the interior minister and federal government respondents in his petition

The petitioner requested the court that Musharraf be placed on the ECL, and a treason case registered against him and an action initiated. Aziz also said in his plea such a person should not be allowed to take part in political activities. A government crackdown on the Lal Masjid in Islamabad was launched in July 2007. It ended in a bloody eight-day siege killing at least 58 Pakistani troops and seminary students.

The mosque, with the radical Maulana Abdul Aziz leading several armed seminary students, had announced the establishment of a parallel judicial system, vowing to enforce Islamic Shariah laws in the federal capital and threatening to unleash a wave of suicide bombers if the government took any action to counter it. The 2007 military raid ordered by Musharraf eventually overcame the armed militants. However, several questions regarding the operation were left unanswered.