Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld late former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s death sentence handed out to him by a special court in a high treason case.
Musharraf, the architect of 1999 Kargil War and the country’s last military ruler died in February last year, away from home in Dubai after a prolonged illness. The 79-year-old former ruler was undergoing treatment for amyloidosis in Dubai. He has been living in the UAE since 2016 in self-exile to avoid criminal charges back home.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan, and Justice Athar Minallah conducted the hearing. “The impugned passed on January 13, 2020, by the Lahore High Court (LHC) […] is not sustainable and accordingly set aside,” CJP Isa was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
On December 17, 2019, a special court handed out the death sentence to the former ruler after a case of high treason was filed against him during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party’s tenure for his “unconstitutional” decision to impose an emergency in November 2007.
This marked the first instance in Pakistan’s history where a military chief faced such charges. The verdict, split 2-1, faced legal challenges. In January 2020, the Lahore High Court declared unconstitutional all actions against Musharraf, annulling the death penalty.
Earlier in November, the Supreme Court scheduled hearings for appeals, including one from the late dictator. Subsequently, appeals against Musharraf’s acquittal were also accepted for review.
(With agency inputs)
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