Mush gets death sentence in absentia

Pakistan's former dictator Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday sentenced to death in absentia in a high treason case for subverting the Constitution; this makes him the first military ruler to receive 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 76year-old former Army chief, now living in Dubai in self-exile, guilty.

The indictment for treason is a watershed 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.

Before issuing the verdict, the court rejected a plea by the prosecutors to delay the verdict.

The former Army chief left for Dubai for medical treatment in March 2016 and has not returned since, citing security and health reasons. In a video statement from his hospital bed, he called the treason case "absolutely baseless". "I have served my country for 10 years. I have fought for my country. In this (treason) case, I have not been heard and I have been victimised."

His legal team can appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court. If the top court upholds the special court's verdict, the president possesses the constitutional authority under Article 45 to pardon a death row defendant, the report said. Shortly before the special court's verdict, the Lahore High Court had recommended a full-bench hearing of Musharraf's plea for stay in the trial.