Pervez Musharraf gets death penalty in high treason case

The special court that was set up for the treason case of the former military leader and president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has sentenced him to death for imposing the state of emergency back in 2007.

This case was pending since 2014 and was the special court was constituted by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to try Pervez Musharraf with treason for violating the Constitution.

Salman Nadeem, government law officer has said:

Pervez Musharraf has been found guilty of Article 6 for violation of the constitution of Pakistan,

The article 6 of the Constitution states:

Any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or hold in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance the Constitution by use of force or show force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason,

The special court set up had three members including Justice Karim of Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Waqar Seth of Peshawar High Court (PHC) and Justice Nazar Akbar of Sindh High Court to hear the case.

Musharraf is currently residing in Dubai and is said to be under medical treatment.

This was all brought forward after Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on November 3rd of 2007 suspending the constitution and detaining many senior political leaders and judges. It not not help him when earlier in March of 2007 he also attempted to remove the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as the move from the Supreme Court’s perspective was illegal and caused wide spread protests across the country by lawyers.

The verdict was split 2-1 and detailed judgement is to be issued in two days.

The government however tried to delay the decision by filing 3 applications today but the bench noted:

Submitting such a request after three and a half years means the government doesn’t have the right intentions.

According to Justice Karim and other, the government was using these tactics to add more names to the high treason trial.

Twitter has been going insane with the hashtag #Musharraf and a lot of the public seem to be against the court decision.

(Retd) Air Marshal Shahid Latif tweeted:

Sad day in the history of Pakistan, where a judgment has been given without hearing the defendant. Also, General Musharraf has been singled out in this case shows the Mala fide of Nawaz Sharif and Iftikhar Chaudhary. Justice must be seen to be done! #Musharraf
— Air Marshal Shahid Latif – (Retd) (@AMShahidLatif) December 17, 2019

Although there are people supporting the decision as well like international Journalist Wajahat Kazmi who was seen tweeting:

The biggest crime of #Musharraf was empowering the weak MQM once again which not only killed all the participating police officers of Karachi Operation but also terrorized Karachi including May 12 carnage. He was in cahoot with traitors like Altaf Hussain. Kudos to #SpecialCourt.
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) December 17, 2019