Lahore High Court full bench constituted to hear Musharraf’s plea

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) constituted a full bench to hear a petition filed by former military ruler retired general Pervez Musharraf challenging the trial against him on Tuesday.

The formation of a special court that awarded him death sentence on the same day the plea was also moved.

Addressing a press conference, Babar Awan referred to a judgment, SCMR 1999, page 1,619 of Supreme Court given by Chief Justice Irshad Hussain, which clarified that an appeal can be filed in absence of the accused.

Babar Awan said, some elements were talking about in-house change had already failed themselves out-house. “There was no base or possibility in the matter and not even the circumstances were favouring such rumours,” the PTI leader said.

The special court – comprising Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar and Justice Shahid Karim – sentenced Musharraf, 76, to death on December 17 after finding him guilty of high treason for abrogating the Constitution in 2007.

Justice Amir Bhatti and Justice Masood Jahangir will be the part of the three-member full bench which will be headed by Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi.

Article 6 of the Constitution says: “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.”

Paragraph 66 of Musharraf’s case verdict sparks outrage

Earlier in the last week, Paragraph 66 of high treason case detailed verdict against former military ruler General retired Pervez Musharraf drew huge outcry.

The specific portion that reads “We direct the Law Enforcement Agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be hanged for 03 days,” drew quite a lot of reactions and condemnation by legal experts and analysts.