Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, 59, has passed away due to coronavirus on Friday.
Justice Seth had tested positive for COVID-19 on October 22 and was subsequently moved to a hospital in Peshawar, a report in Dawn said. The judge was later shifted to to a private hospital in Islamabad in a critical condition.
He leaves behind a wife and a daughter.
Justice Seth took oath as chief justice of the PHC on June 28, 2018. During his tenure as the CJ, he issued important verdicts, specifically the acquittal of over 70 convicts most of whom were handed down death sentences by military courts.
The deceased jurist was also the head of a special court that had sentenced former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf to death by hanging in a high treason case.
Both the government and the army had expressed “anger” over a specific paragraph 66 of the detailed judgement and termed it “unlawful”, “inhuman” and “unconstitutional”.
Para 66 of the verdict read: “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict [Pervez Musharraf] and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk [in front of the Parliament House], Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for three days.”
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Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed grief on the demise of the judge.
