Pervez Musharraf

PAKISTAN: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS GENERAL MUSHARRAF’S DEATH SENTENCE, A YEAR AFTER HIS DEATH

January 15, 2024:

The Pakistan Supreme Court on January 10, 2024 upheld late former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf's death penalty awarded to him in 2019 in connection with a high treason case, Geo TV reported.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Athar Minallah said the Lahore High Court's January 13, 2020 order, which struck down Musharraf's death sentence, had been ineffective for non-compliance.
On December 17, 2019, a special court pronounced the death penalty on the late military general after a case of high treason was lodged against him by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) for his "unconstitutional" decision to impose a state of emergency in 2007, according to Geo TV.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court observed that Musharraf's family did not follow the case even after multiple notices were sent to them.
Salman Safdar, Musharraf's counsel, said he attempted to contact the former president's family after the court decided to hear the appeal but did not get any response from them.
On February 5 last year, Musharraf, 79, died due to a prolonged illness in Dubai, where he was in self-exile.
Born in Delhi on August 11, 1943, Musharraf and his family shifted to the newly-formed state of Pakistan after the Partition in 1947. After climbing up the ranks over the years, he was promoted to four-star general by then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1998.
After the loss of the Kargil War to India in 1999, there was a power struggle between Musharraf and Sharif. Following that, Musharraf took control of Pakistan in a military coup and became the president in 2001.
Musharraf's rule faced challenges, including legal proceedings against him for alleged involvement in high-profile assassinations and for implementing an emergency and suspending the Constitution in 2007.
He resigned in 2008 to avoid impeachment and lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai.