The Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 10, upheld ex-military dictator and former President Pervez Musharraf’s death sentence in a treason case, Dawn reported. Musharraf, who was Pakistan’s military dictator during the Kargil war, passed away on February 5, 2023, in Dubai after prolonged illness. He was living in exile since 2016 to evade criminal charged in Pakistan.
The SC passed the order on petitions over the Lahore High Court’s judgement from 2020, freeing Musharraf of charges of treason and cancelling the complaint against him, therefore dissolving the death sentence awarded to him on December 17, 2019.
“In December 2019, a special court in Islamabad found the ex-dictator guilty of high treason and handed him a death sentence under Article 6 of the Constitution. It marked the first time in Pakistan’s history that a military chief had been declared guilty and punished,” the Dawn report stated.
However, on January 13, 2020, the LHC had declared unconstitutional all actions taken by the government against Musharraf, including the filing of a complaint on charges of high treason and the formation of a special court as well as its proceedings. The verdict led to the abolition of the death penalty handed down to him.
(This is a breaking story. More details will follow.)
