Supreme Court upholds Pervez Musharraf’s death sentence in a treason case

The Supreme Court (SC) upheld the death sentence imposed on former President General (ret) Pervez Musharraf by a special court in 2019 in a high treason case.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan, and Justice Athar Minallah conducted the hearing. 

A special court awarded a death sentence in 2019 to the former dictator according to Article 6 of the Constitution. A high treason case was filed against Musharraf during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) tenure for imposing an “unconstitutional” emergency in the country in 2007.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) declared the verdict of special court to hear the case against Musharraf under Article 6 “unconstitutional” on January 13, 2020.

After that, the Pakistan Bar Council and senior lawyers, including Taufeeq Asif, challenged the LHC decision in SC.

The court announced its reserved decision today on the petition filed by the former dictator against a death sentence.

“Pervez Musharraf’s heirs did not follow the case even on multiple notices,” the SC remarked while rejecting the former president’s appeal.