Former Pakistan army chief given death sentence in high treason case

DUBAI - Associated Press

Former Pakistan Army Chief and ex-president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf has been given the death penalty in a treason case by a special court in Pakistan.

This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that a former army chief has been handed the death sentence. The special court order is subject to appeal.

A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, on Dec. 17 handed former military ruler Pervez Musharraf the death sentence.

Musharraf has been living in Dubai and London since 2014 after he was allowed to travel on medical grounds. He never went back despite court orders and was also earlier put on the list of most wanted people. 

Musharraf was booked in the treason case in December 2013 for imposing the state of emergency on November 03, 2007 suspending the constitution of Pakistan.

He was indicted on March 31, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year. However, due to litigation at appellate forums, the trial of the former military dictator lingered on and he left Pakistan in March 2016.

Although the special court — comprising Justice Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Shahid Karim of the LHC — had announced that it would deliver its verdict in the case today, the government’s prosecutor, Advocate Ali Zia Bajwa, said that they had submitted three petitions today.

One of the petitions asks that the court make three individuals — former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, former Supreme Court chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and former law minister Zahid Hamid — suspects in the case.

The prosecutor said that according to a 2014 petition, Shaukat Aziz had told Musharraf to impose emergency.