Court verdict on Pervez disputed
Islamabad, March 6: The Pakistan Bar Council has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Lahore High Court’s order to quash the death penalty of selfexiled former dictator Pervez Musharraf in a treason case, a media report said on Friday.
A special court in Islamabad on December 17 last year handed down the death penalty to the 74-year-old retired general Musharraf, now based in Dubai, after six years of hearing the high-profile treason case against him.
However, on January 13 musharraf’s trial in the high treason case was declared as “unconstitutional” by the LHC, leading to the annulment of the death sentence against the former president.
The Pakistan Bar Council on Thursday filed a petition against the LHC order.
The petition filed on behalf of PBC vice chairman Abid Saqi and supported by Supreme Court Bar Association president Syed Qalb-e-Hassan among others has sought the apex court to set aside the LHC judgement, and questioned whether high court enjoys territorial
jurisdiction to entertain ex-president’s plea, the agencies reported.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had filed the treason case against the former army chief in 2013 over the imposition of an extraconstitutional emergency in November 2007, which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.
The LHC in its January 13 order declared that the formation of the special court was “unconstitutional” and that the treason case against Musharraf was not prepared in accordance with the law.
— PTI