RFE/RLMon, 13 Jan 2020 01:26 UTC
© EPA-EFEPeople shout slogans during a protest against the sentencing to death of former President Pervez Musharraf in Peshawar on December 24.
A Pakistani tribunal has ruled that the formation of a special court that has handed former military ruler Pervez Musharraf a death sentence was "unconstitutional."
It was not immediately clear whether the January 13 ruling by the Lahore High Court would automatically nullify Musharraf's death sentence on treason charges.Musharraf ruled Pakistan between 1999 and 2008 and is currently receiving medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
The 76-year-old is the first military ruler to stand trial in Pakistan, where the military maintains a strong influence.
He was sentenced to death in absentia by a special court in December on treason charges stemming from his imposition of a state of emergency in 2007.
Musharraf has slammed the case against him as a "vendetta," while the military accused the court of ignoring legal processes and defended Musharraf's patriotism.
Prime Minister Imran Khan's government also questioned the fairness of the trial and said it had found "gaps and weaknesses" in the sentence.
Comment: It's
clear now:
Lahore High Court (LHC) has annulled the death sentence handed to former president Pervez Musharraf, ruling that a special court which found him guilty of high treason was unconstitutional, according to a government law officer.
Following the LHC ruling, the ex-president is now a "free man," Ishtiaq A. Khan, Additional Attorney General of Pakistan, who represented the government in the case, told AFP. The whole process against Musharraf - including the creation of a special court - was deemed to be void.
LHC "has declared everything from the initiation of the complaint and its conclusion unconstitutional," Khan said, as cited by Reuters.
Earlier in the day, Musharraf's lawyer Azhar Siddique told the media outside the court that the judges have "nullified everything" against his client.
...
A provision to hang Musharraf's body in front of parliament for three days, should he perish before the death sentence could be carried out, was included in the verdict by one of the judges and sparked a backlash. It was branded "unprecedented and despicable" by Law Minister Farogh Naseem, who called for the "mentally unfit" judge to be ousted.
That statement doesn't mean the ruler's of the anthill can't just snatch up John Q and do their devilry against him. What it means is that what they do is fraud from the beginning of social contract until revolution.
There is a reason behind why there are so many words in English that have double, triple, or more meanings outside the "court" and within.
The word "court" itself can mean how many things?
This is why the "Court" demands the "plaintiff" "hires" a "lawyer". Because some group of jackhells have to make determination of the application of the words in the text so eventually a sentence can be applied.
Some really devious never-been-Semitics-but-claim-to-be thought all of this up, over a long period of time.