This has happened for the first time in the history of Pakistan that a president has been awarded a death sentence by a special court. Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday (17.12.2019) sentenced to death in the high disloyalty case by a special court of Pakistan. A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, announced Musharraf, 76, death sentence in the long-drawn high sedition case against Pervez Musharraf.
At present Musharraf, is in Dubai, he has been facing betrayal charges for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007, a punishable offense for which he was accused in 2014.
The 76-year-old former Pakistan Army chief had left for Dubai for medical treatment and has not returned since, citing security and health reasons.
Musharraf had recorded a video message from his hospital bed in which he said he was ready to record his statement in the case. “A judicial commission can come here and hear me out. It must see my health condition and make a decision. The commission, with my lawyer, must then be heard in the court declared by Musharraf. He has maintained that owing to his deteriorating health condition and multiple life-threatening ailments of his aged mother, he is unable to return to Pakistan.
❍ THE CASE
The high sedition trial of the former military dictator for compressing the state of emergency on November 3, 2007, filed during the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government, had been pending since 2013.
Musharraf was engaged in the treason case in December 2013. Musharraf was accused on March 31, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year in 2014.
But due to court case appeal forums, the trial of the former military dictator lingered on and he had left Pakistan in March 2016 with the permission of superior courts as well as the interior ministry for medical treatment.
