Treason case: Special court hands death penalty to Pervez Musharraf

• A three-member special court comprising Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court announced its reserved verdict.
• The high treason case had been pending since 2013.

A special court in a first in Pakistan's history, handed on Tuesday death sentence to former president general (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the high treason case.

A three-member bench of the special court, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth announced its reserved verdict. The verdict which was split 2-1 said that it found the former military ruler guilty of high treason according to Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan for imposing a state of emergency on November 03, 2007.

According to Article 6, 'any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or hold in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance the Constitution by use of force or show force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason'.

The detailed judgement will be issued in the next two days. The former president is currently in Dubai where he has been undergoing medical treatment.

Reserving its verdict in the previous hearing, the special court had said it will announce its judgement on November 28. However, the Islamabad High Court had barred the bench from issuing its judgement.

The bench has been hearing the case of imposition of extra-constitutional emergency by Musharraf in 2007. The treason case has been pending since December 2013. Back in 2014, Musharraf was indicted by the special court when he appeared and rejected all charges against him.

He then left the country in 2016 for medical treatment, after the Supreme Court removed his name from the Exit Control List.