[A panel of judges ruled that the proceedings
against him were unconstitutional and that the crime he was accused of could
not be “undertaken by a single person.”]
By
Salman Masood
 |
|
Protesters
with pictures of Pervez Musharraf in Karachi, Pakistan, after the special
court’s verdict
was handed down last month. Credit Rizwan Tabassum/Agence
France-Presse
— Getty Images
|
ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan — A Pakistani high
court on Monday overturned a death sentence that was handed down to Pervez
Musharraf in a treason trial last month, most likely putting an end to the
legal case against the country’s former military dictator.
Monday’s ruling, by a three-member bench of
the High Court, found that the special court that issued the sentence was
unconstitutional. Several lawyers and analysts said that the current
government, which includes many Musharraf loyalists, was unlikely to
reconstitute the special court for a new trial.
The three judges, in the eastern city of
Lahore, said that the case against Mr. Musharraf was politically motivated and
that the crimes he was accused of committing — high treason and subverting the
Constitution — were “a joint offense” that “cannot be undertaken by a single
person.”
Mr. Musharraf, 76, was accused of subverting
the country’s Constitution in 2007 when he fired much of the judiciary and
imposed a state of emergency in an attempt to block a political opposition
movement. The movement had greatly weakened him, and he resigned the following
year under a threat of impeachment.
Even when originally announced in December,
the death sentence was largely seen as symbolic — the first time in the
country’s history that a former military ruler had been held accountable for
actions taken while in office. It was not expected to be carried out in a
country where the military, which still wields immense power, was expected to
protect its former chief.
Soon after the death sentence was announced,
the Pakistani Army criticized the verdict and called for a legal review. Mr.
Musharraf’s legal team challenged the sentence in the Lahore High Court this
month.
The treason trial was initiated in 2013 by
the prime minister at the time, Nawaz Sharif, whose earlier government Mr. Musharraf
had toppled in a bloodless coup. Mr. Musharraf — who is now in Dubai in a
self-imposed exile — claimed that the charges against him were politically
motivated.
Mr. Musharraf also maintained that he was not
alone in the imposition of the state of emergency in 2007 and had been aided by
senior government and military officials.
He did not appear in the initial proceedings
of the treason case, and his security convoy was mysteriously directed to a
military hospital before one 2014 hearing. Despite his complaints of chest
pains, many believed that the military was protecting him from prosecution.
He was allowed to leave the country for
medical treatment in 2016, and although he vowed to return and face the legal
cases, he did not do so. The death sentence announced in December was handed
down in absentia.
