Special court hands death penalty to Pervez Musharraf in high treason case

A  special court hearing the high treason case against former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday handed the former  ruler  a death sentence under  Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The case was heard by a special bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court and Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court. The bench was formed on the orders of the Supreme Court.

The court, in its short order said it had analysed complaints, records, arguments and facts in the case for three months. The court added it had found Musharraf guilty of high treason according to Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan for imposing a state of emergency on November 03, 2007.

It was a majority verdict, with two of the three judges giving the decision against Musharraf.  SHC's Justice Akbar had dissented from the verdict.

Justice  Seth added a detailed verdict will be issued later. 

Earlier, the special court hearing the high treason case against the former president had said it would announce the verdict on December 17 even if arguments of both sides were not completed by then.

It is pertinent to mention here the special court on November 19 had said the verdict in the case would be announced on November 28, before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) barred it from doing so.

High treason case

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against Musharraf over the former dictator's imposition of extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007.

Head of the prosecution, Mohammad Akram Sheikh had tendered his resignation. In his resignation letter sent to the interior secretary, Sheikh expressed his inability to proceed with the case after the imminent change of government at the centre.

Sheikh was appointed as the head of the prosecution in the case in November 2013, by the then-PML-N led government.

The former army chief was indicted in the case in March 2014 after he appeared before the court. He had  rejected all the charges.

On March 18, 2016, the former president left Pakistan for Dubai for medical treatment after his name was removed from the exit control list on the orders of the Supreme Court.

A few months later, the special court had declared him a proclaimed offender and ordered the confiscation of his property owing to his continuous inability to appear.

Later, his passport and identity card were also cancelled on the orders of the apex court.