Tuesday (December 17): Pakistan’s former dictator Pervez Musharraf was today sentenced to death in absentia in the high treason case for subverting the Constitution, becoming the first military ruler to receive the capital punishment in the country’s history.
A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, found the ailing 76-year-old former Army chief, now living in Dubai on self-exile, guilty of high treason and handed him the death sentence.
This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that a military chief has been declared guilty of high treason and handed the death sentence.
His indictment for treason was a highly significant moment in a country where the powerful military has held sway for much of its independent history.
Musharraf seized power by ousting then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a 1999 bloodless coup. He has also served as Pakistan’s president from 2001 to 2008.
He was sentenced for suspending the Constitution and imposing extra-constitutional emergency in 2007, a punishable offence for which he was indicted in 2014.
The special court, formed on the orders of the Supreme Court, issued a 2-1 split verdict and its details would be announced in the next 48 hours.
