Former president Pervez Musharraf sentenced to death on charges of high treason by special court in Pakistan, say reports

Pakistan’s ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death in high treason case by a special court in Pakistan, media reports said.

A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, handed Musharraf, 76, death sentence in the long-drawn high treason case against him for suspending the Constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007, a punishable offence for which he was indicted in 2014.

The former Pakistan Army chief left for Dubai for medical treatment in March 2016 and has not returned since, citing security and health reasons.

The special court — comprising Justice Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court — announced the verdict it had reserved on 19 November, the Dawn newspaper reported.

He was booked in the treason case in December 2013. Musharraf was indicted on 31 March, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year. However, due to litigation at appellate forums, the trial of the former military dictator lingered on and he left Pakistan in March 2016.

In October, the special court was informed that the government had sacked the entire prosecution team engaged by the previous PML-N government to prosecute the high treason case against Musharraf.