In a landmark judgment, Pakistan’s Supreme Court docket, on Wednesday, upheld the loss of life sentence of now-deceased former army ruler Pervez Musharraf given to him by a particular court docket in a excessive treason case.
In December 2019, Musharraf was sentenced to loss of life in absentia by the particular court docket which discovered him responsible of excessive treason, for imposing a state of emergency on November 3, 2007, by conserving the structure in abeyance. Nevertheless, the Lahore Excessive Court docket in January 2020 had declared the particular court docket and its continuing as unconditional.
The problem of his sentence and the LHC judgement had been earlier than the apex court docket the place a four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Aminuddin Khan and Athar Minallah carried out the listening to.
“The impugned handed on January 13, 2020 by the Lahore Excessive Court docket (LHC) [] isn’t sustainable and accordingly put aside,” Chief Justice Isa stated whereas asserting the brief order.
In the course of the listening to, Hamid Khan and Musharraf’s counsel Salman Safdar appeared earlier than the court docket.
“Musharraf’s authorized heirs didn’t comply with the case even on a number of notices,” the apex court docket remarked whereas rejecting the previous president’s enchantment.
It’s for the primary time {that a} former army dictator has been awarded punishment for subverting the structure.
Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil Warfare in 1999 and the coup-prone nation’s final army ruler, died on February 5, 2023 in Dubai after a chronic sickness. The 79-year-old former president was present process therapy for amyloidosis in Dubai. He was residing within the UAE since 2016 in self-exile to keep away from prison costs again dwelling.
The then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had initiated a treason trial in opposition to Musharraf in 2013.
On December 17, 2019, a three-judge particular court docket, comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar and Justice Shahid Karim sentenced Musharraf to loss of life – who was sentenced in absentia resulting from sickness and being in another country – below Article 6 of the Structure of Pakistan.
The Article states that any one who abrogates or subverts or suspends or holds in abeyance, or makes an attempt or conspires to abrogate or subvert or droop or maintain in abeyance the Structure by use of pressure or present pressure or by every other unconstitutional means shall be responsible of excessive treason.
The costs in opposition to Musharraf had stemmed from his imposition of a state of emergency in 2007 and subsequently for being responsible of excessive treason for abrogating the Structure.
The judgement angered the nation’s highly effective military that has dominated over Pakistan for many the interval since its existence. It was the primary time a former prime army official had confronted such a sentence for treason in Pakistan.
The LHC constituted a full bench, headed by Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, to listen to a petition filed by Musharraf who challenged the trial in opposition to him and the formation of a particular court docket. The LHC bench on January 13, 2020 quashed the loss of life penalty by declaring the formation of the particular court docket bench as unconstitutional.
Later the decision of the particular court docket and the LHC had been challenged within the apex court docket.
Musharraf’s counsel, Salman Safdar, stated that he tried contacting Musharraf’s household after the court docket determined to listen to the enchantment however the household by no means responded to him.
Within the earlier listening to on November 29, 2023, the highest court docket noticed that each one these, together with the judges, who validated the martial legislation imposed by Musharraf on October 12, 1999, must be held accountable.
Justice Athar had additionally remarked that the judges who validated the imposition of martial legislation by Musharraf in 1999 also needs to be tried.
The chief justice had noticed that we must always be taught from our historical past including that even when somebody was not punished for abrogating the Structure, a minimum of one ought to admit that what was executed previously was fallacious.
The chief justice additional noticed that the first facet was recognition of the wrongdoing and everybody ought to a minimum of settle for {that a} fallacious had been executed previously.
Justice Athar had remarked that one ought to communicate the reality and the reality was that the judges who validated the martial legislation also needs to be tried and given a good trial.
