Pakistan’s top court will on Monday hear a petition asking for Pervez Musharraf to be put on trial for treason

Pakistan's top court will on Monday hear a petition asking for Pervez Musharraf to be put on trial for treason, the latest in a barrage of challenges to his bid for election, officials said.

Taufiq Asif, president of the Rawalpindi high court bar association, said that he had asked the Supreme Court to try Musharraf for treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007, a move that ultimately paved the way for his downfall.

Supreme Court officials confirmed that judges would hear the petition on Monday.

Musharraf returned to Pakistan from four years in self-imposed exile on March 24, vowing to run for the lower house of parliament at elections on May 11.

He already faces legal charges and has been bailed over the 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and a Baluch rebel leader in 2006, and for sacking and arresting judges in 2007.

His powerbase has shriveled since he stepped down after nine years of military rule in 2008, but he has applied to contest elections from four different seats.

On Friday, Musharraf's nomination papers were rejected in Kasur, an agricultural and industrial town in Punjab province. Two lawyers disputed that he was not suitable to stand office and argued that he had violated the constitution by imposing emergency rule in 2007.

Aasia Ishaque, information secretary for Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League, said the ruling would be challenged.

Musharraf has also applied to run in Karachi, his home town, Islamabad, where he has a farm house, and Chitral, a mountain region on the Afghan border.