The special court constituted to try former army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf released the detailed judgment of the high treason case on Thursday
Islamabad (Pakistan Point News / Online - 19th December, 2019) The special court constituted to try former army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf released the detailed judgment of the high treason case on Thursday.Musharraf was tried in absentia for high treason handed a death sentence under Article-6 of the Constitution. The bench was headed by Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and comprised Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
The verdict, 169-page long, has been authored by Justice Seth. Justice Karim and Justice Seth agreed on the basis of the evidence presented that Musharraf had committed a crime. However, Justice Nazar wrote a dissenting note. The verdict was split 2-1."We direct the Law Enforcement Agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad and be hanged for 03 days," read the detailed verdict.
"It is unbelievable and unimaginable that such an extreme act is committed alone by a single man in uniform," Justice Seth further wrote in the verdict.Justice Nazar of the Sindh High Court, who dissented from the verdict, pointed out that the word high treason' is not defined in the Constitution and the court relied on the definition given in dictionaries."In the offence under Article 6 of the Constitution, the charging word is high treason, therefore, without properly appreciating what does it mean, this Court cannot pass a just and fair verdict," the note reads.
"Admittedly the word high treason is not defined in the Constitution or any other relevant law for the benefit of this Court. But for this reason, both the learned counsel for the prosecution and my learned brothers have referred to the definition of "high treason" by relying on the meaning of High Treason' given in the Oxford dictionary (tenth Edition).The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against Musharraf in November 2007.
Head of the prosecution, Mohammad Akram Sheikh had tendered his resignation in 2018. In his resignation letter sent to the interior secretary, Sheikh expressed his inability to proceed with the case after the imminent change of government at the centre.The former army chief was indicted in the case in March 2014 after he appeared before the court. He had rejected all the charges. On March 18, 2016, the former president left Pakistan for Dubai for medical treatment after his name was removed from the exit control list on the orders of the Supreme Court. A few months later, the special court had declared him a proclaimed offender and ordered the confiscation of his property owing to his continuous inability to appear.
