ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – A four-member bench of the Supreme Court will take up high treason case against former army chief and president Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday (today).
Gen Musharraf had appealed against the death sentence handed him down by a special court.
In January 2020, a three-member bench of the Lahore High Court had declared the special court unconstitutional. After the LHC verdict, Gen Musharraf challenged special court’s decision.
The four-member larger bench which will hear the appeal is headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and includes Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Athar Minallah.
THE DEATH SENTENCE
In December 2019, a special court sentenced Musharraf to death after finding him guilty of high treason for subverting the constitution in 2007. He took power in a 1999 coup.
The court directed law enforcers to apprehend Musharraf, who was under medical treatment in Dubai at that time, to ensure the death sentence is carried out.
The three-judge panel ruled that the corpse of Musharraf should hang for three days if the general dies before his execution.
It may be recalled that in November 2007, Musharraf suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule, prompting protests. He resigned in 2008 to avoid the threat of impeachment. When Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in 1999, was re-elected prime minister in 2013, he initiated a treason trial against Musharraf and in 2014 he was charged with high treason.