Former president of Pakistan gets death penalty in high treason case

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ISLAMABAD | DEC 17, 2019:

Pakistan's ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday sentenced to death in the high treason case by a special court, according to media reports.

A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, handed Musharraf, 76, death
sentence in the long-drawn high treason case against him for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007, a punishable offence for which he was indicted in 2014.

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Musharraf, who is currently in Dubai, is facing treason charges for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007, a punishable offence for which he was indicted in 2014.

The special court — comprising Justice Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court — announced the verdict it had reserved on November 19, the Dawn newspaper reported.

THE TREASON CASE

The high treason trial of the former military dictator for clamping the state of emergency on November 3, 2007, filed during the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government, had been pending since 2013.

Musharraf was booked in the treason case in December 2013. Musharraf was indicted on March 31, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year.

But due to litigation at appellate forums, the trial of the former military dictator lingered on and he left Pakistan in March 2016 with the nod of superior courts as well as the interior ministry for medical treatment.