Daily Times

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday constituted a full bench to hear former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s petitions against the formation of a special court that sentenced him to death in a high treason case last week.

The LHC full bench comprises justices Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, and Chaudhry Muhammad Masood Jahangir. The high court will hear Musharraf’s petitions from January 9, 2020.

Earlier this month, Musharraf had filed an application in the LHC, urging it to halt the special court from sentencing him in absentia. In the petition, the former dictator had challenged the formation of the special court holding his trial under charges of high treason and legal flaws committed in the procedure.

On December 17, just three days after he filed the petition, Musharraf, who is currently abroad, was handed a death penalty by the special court in Islamabad, after the three-member bench convicted him in the treason case.

One day after he was sentenced to death, LHC’s Justice Naqvi had recommended a full bench to hear the petition and had referred the matter to the chief justice for a final decision.

Musharraf was booked in the treason case in 2013 for imposing a state of emergency in the country on November 3, 2007, and suspending the constitution till the mid of December 2007.

Musharraf, 76, is currently in Dubai where he is seeking treatment of multiple diseases.