Pervez Musharraf has challenged the death sentence given to him by a Pakistan special court in a treason case.
Pakistan’s former dictator Pervez Musharraf on Friday moved the Lahore High Court challenging the death sentence given to him by a court in a treason case.
The former army chief, who has been living in Dubai since 2016 after Pakistan’s SC lifted a travel ban allowing him to leave the country to seek medical treatment, filed the review plea through his counsel on Friday.
A special court had convicted 76-year-old Musharraf of violating the Constitution by unlawfully declaring emergency rule while he was in power, in a case that had been pending since 2013. In his petition, Musharraf said the decision was announced in haste while urging the high court to suspend its decision.
Musharraf raised objection to paragraph 66 of the judgment. Paragraph 66, a dissenting note by Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth, said: “As a necessary corollary to what has been observed we find the accused guilty as per charge. The convict be therefore hanged by his neck till he dies on each count as per charge. We direct the Law Enforcement Agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be hanged for 03 days.”
Musharraf was on Decmebr 17 sentenced to death in absentia in the high treason case for subverting the Constitution, becoming the first military ruler to receive the capital punishment in the country’s history. He had said the death sentence given to him was based on “personnel vendetta”.
In the video released by his party, Musharraf said “there is no example of such a decision in which neither the defendant and nor his lawyer was given permission to say something in his defense.”
He said the court that held his trial in intervals from 2014 to 2019 rejected his request to record a statement in Dubai, where he has been living since 2016, when he left the country to receive medical treatment.
Without citing names, he said that those who acted against him “are enjoying high positions and they misuse their office”.
Musharraf seized power in 1999 by ousting the elected government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In 2007 he imposed an emergency and placed several key judges under house arrest in the capital, Islamabad, and elsewhere in Pakistan.
Later, when he was back in office, Sharif accused Musharraf of treason in 2013. The general was formally charged in 2014. Sharif again came into power in 2013 but a court ousted him from the office in 2017 on corruption charges.
