After years of delays to legal proceedings and no-shows at hearings, General Pervez Musharraf has been given the death sentence by his country’s highest court. The ruling was delivered in Islamabad, in his absence.
Gen Musharraf was given a high treason charge in 2013 which had been pending for six years. He was found guilty of over-ruling the country’s constitution; he had tried to induce an emergency-rule thereafter. This crime is an act punishable by death in Pakistan.
The accused took power during a military operation in 1999. He was also the country’s 10th President from 2001 to 2008. He broke the law more than a decade ago in 2007 and has been on self-inflicted exile to Dubai since 2016 when his travel ban was lifted for the sake of medical treatment.
Musharraf was found guilty with a 2-1 verdict by a three-man court. However, his sentence is more likely symbolic by nature as it cannot be carried out since he is out of the country. However, his sentence does mark the first time an ex-leader has received such a serious treason charge.
The former military officer was a no-show at one of his proceedings in 2014. His convoy was strangely re-directed to a military hospital after he complained of chest pains. However, many people think he staged his illness as a hoax and the army protected him from prosecution. He has failed to return to his home country for the trail after previously promising to do so.
Musharraf holds the charges against him as baseless and untrue. He states that the entire case is politically aggravated and he was given permission for his actions by the cabinet, however, they have disagreed with his claims.
Musharraf recently released an emotive video from his sick-bed in Hospital abroad where he says: “I have served Pakistan all my life, and I am being tried for treason.” Much of the public has responded to his sentence with shock and disbelief.
