ISLAMABAD (ENNS/MD)
The special court formed to hear a high treason case against former president Pervez Musharraf here on Tuesday sentenced the former dictator to death for imposing a state of emergency on November 3, 2007.
He suspended constitution on 12th October 1999 as well.
The case had been heard by a special bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court and Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court. They had been appointed on the orders of the Supreme Court.
The special court had reserved its verdict in the long-running treason trial last month.
The court, when reserving its verdict, had said it will announce its judgement on November 28. However, the Islamabad High Court had barred the bench from issuing the verdict on the said date.
When the special court reconvened on November 28, it had noted that it was not bound to follow the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order. Nonetheless, the court allowed the ex-dictator to one more chance to record his statement in the case by December 5.
In its hearing on December 5, the special court had announced that it would issue the verdict on December 17, even if arguments of both sides were not completed by then.
Govt request denied
Earlier on Tuesday morning, the government had sought to include former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, former law minister Zahid Hamid and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz as co-conspirators in the case.
The court, before announcing its verdict, had rejected this request and directed the government’s counsel to argue the case on its merits while reminding him that the Supreme Court has already ruled on the matter.
The court had subsequently recessed for a short while before announcing the landmark verdict.
High treason case
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against Musharraf over the former dictator’s imposition of an extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007.
