Imtiaz Ahmad

letters@hindustantimes.com

Islamabad : Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf on Friday challenged an Islamabad special court’s verdict sentencing him to death in a high treason case. The petition was filed by Azhar Siddique on behalf of Musharraf in the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The special court on December 17 had sentenced Musharraf to death for imposing a state of emergency on November 3, 2007 and suspending the Constitution.

The petition stated that Musharraf was not given a chance to present his arguments and that the “special court quite abruptly and hurriedly wrapped up a trial that was far from its conclusion”.

“The hastily announced judgment is emanating from a prosecution case which suffers, for all intents and purposes from an admitted, noticeable and unexplained delay of over five years from the date of the alleged offence and initiation of proceeding,” the petition added.

The petition challenged paragraph 66 of the special court’s verdict, which read, “We direct law enforcement agencies to ensure that… his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad and be hanged for three days”.

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