Daily Times

A specific portion of the special court’s detailed verdict released Thursday in the high treason case against General (r) Pervez Musharraf drew quite a lot of reactions from experts and analysts, both in mainstream and on social media.

The verdict, penned by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, sentenced the former military dictator to death. However, Paragraph 66 of the verdict, was the portion that drew an outcry. “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,” it read.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday said some people with questionable knowledge and credibility have become judges.

The federal minister’s remarks came a few hours after a special court hearing the high treason case against General (r) Pervez Musharraf issued the detailed verdict. “After the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, some people with questionable knowledge and credibility have become judges,” he said, adding that the people who are attempting to play with fire don’t know that they can get burnt by that fire. “They neither have the capability to select words nor issue statements,” he said, adding that it is not new that people do not learn lessons from the history.

Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed termed the verdict issued by the special court in high treason case ‘illegal and immoral’.

Taking to journalists, he said that institutions are also raising questions over the judgment.

Expressing solidarity with the armed forces, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul Haq said Pakistani nation and army are not two separate entities. Talking to journalists, Haq said the nation has great respect and love for the army, adding that the masses do not consider General (r) Pervez Musharraf part of the army after retirement.

He said that someone’s opinion about Pervez Musharraf should not be taken as opinion about Pakistan Army. Without taking name of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the JI chief said that question should also be asked from those who had given protocol to Pervez Musharraf.

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari noted that while she is not going to comment on the judgement, she is ‘aghast’ at ‘the language of a senior judge’. “Even a layperson knows para 66 referring to dragging corpse etc is ultra vires the Constitution. Where are we headed with such violent mindsets?”

Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Haider Zaidi commented on how it ‘is ridiculous to say the least’. “This is way beyond the boundaries of religion, law & logic. This judge has made the whole judiciary controversial with this barbaric judgement,” he added. Lawyer Ahmed Pansota talked about the controversial Paragraph 66, saying the kind of punishment written in there ‘were declared to be violative of inviolable dignity of man’, according to 1994 SCMR 1028. He also referred to another case, Aslam Khaki vs The State.

Noor, a human rights advocate, said Paragraph 66 adds nothing but optics and reflects a judge who got carried away by populism. “Condemn the death penalty, but in condemning Seth, don’t become Musharraf apologists,” she added. A senior teaching fellow at the SOAS University of London’s Politics Department, Yasser Kureshi, noted the two very different legacies in Pakistan’s constitutional history.