High Treason Case: Musharraf Challenges Special Court’s Verdict in LHC.
Ex-president and COAS Gen (R) Pervaiz Musharraf challenges the Special High Court’s final verdict of the death penalty in the high treason case. In this regard, the former president filed a petition with Lahore High Court on Friday. He was previously sentenced to Death on the 17th of December under article 6 by the special […] The post High Treason Case: Musharraf Challenges Special Court’s Verdict in LHC. appeared first on Nation Bytes.
Ex-president and COAS Gen (R) Pervaiz Musharraf challenges the Special High Court’s final verdict of the death penalty in the high treason case. In this regard, the former president filed a petition with Lahore High Court on Friday.
He was previously sentenced to Death on the 17th of December under article 6 by the special court on high treason case for imposing emergency on 3rd November 2007. After the final verdict, Musharraf said in a video message that he will challenge the special court’s decision.
On Friday, a petition was filed by Advocate Azhar Siddique on Gen (retd) Musharraf’s behalf. The 86 page-long petition nominated the federal government and others as respondents. A full bench, chaired by Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, scheduled the petition for hearing on Jan 9, 2020.
The petition highlighted that the “judgment contained a mix of anomalies and contradictory statements”. It added that the special court “rapidly and hurriedly wrapped up the trial which was far from [a] conclusion”.
“The special court announced an award of capital punishment to the applicant without examining the accused under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) (power to examine the accused). The importance of examining the accused in a criminal trial is enormous and any lapse, failure or omission to fulfill this requirement adversely affects the prosecution case.
“A criminal trial cannot simply [be] complete without adhering to this mandatory legal requirement.”
The petition stated that the special court “has not taken into consideration that no actions detrimental to national interest were taken by the applicant” as “no offense of high treason is made out from the evidence presented against him [Musharraf] before the special court”.
The petition also challenged the verdict’s graphic paragraph 66 which read: “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict [Pervez Musharraf] and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk [in front of the Parliament House], Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for three days”.
The petition stated: “The Honourable respective president of the special court has crossed all religious moral, civil and constitutional limits, while ruthlessly, irreligiously, unlawfully, unrealistically awarding a debilitating, humiliating, unprecedented and against the dignity of a person sentence […] through para 66.”
The special court’s final verdict was criticized by the masses on a great level. DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor issued a statement that the court decision was received with a lot of pain and anguish by rank and file of Pakistan armed forces”.
The post High Treason Case: Musharraf Challenges Special Court’s Verdict in LHC. appeared first on Nation Bytes.
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