The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday upheld former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s death sentence awarded to him by a special court in 2019 in a “high treason case”.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Athar Minallah conducted the hearing.
On December 17, 2019, a special court awarded the death sentence to the former ruler under Article 6 of the Constitution after a case of high treason was filed against him during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) tenure for his “unconstitutional” decision to impose an emergency in November 2007.
On Jan 13, 2020, the Lahore High Court (LHC) declared the verdict, given by the special court formed to hear the high treason case under Article 6, “unconstitutional”.
Following this, the LHC verdict was challenged by the Pakistan Bar Council and several senior lawyers including Taufeeq Asif.
The court today announced the reserved verdict on the appeal filed by the former ruler against the death sentence which was handed to him and declared it ineffective for non-compliance.
“Pervez Musharraf’s heirs did not follow the case even on multiple notices,” the SC remarked while rejecting the former president’s appeal.
Musharraf’s counsel, Salman Safdar, said that he tried contacting Musharraf’s family after the court decided to hear the appeal but the family never responded to him.
The court also declared LHC’s judgment “null and void” and remarked that the LHC’s decision was against the law.
The top court’s decision came despite the military ruler’s passing away on February 5, 2023.
