A court in Pakistan has sentenced the country’s former military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, to death for treason.

The charge relates to a state of emergency he imposed in November 2007 during an infamous purge, which saw him suspend the constitution and place several key judges under house arrest.

Musharraf had come to power in 2001, two years after ousting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 bloodless coup. Sharif had appointed him chief of the army the previous year.

The coup sparked protests and Musharraf had survived numerous assassination attempts and plots to kill him by the time he resigned in 2008 to avoid the threat of impeachment.

Musharraf has described the case as “baseless” and insists the actions he took in 2007 were agreed by the cabinet and government. However, the courts turned down these arguments and maintain he acted illegally.

“This case is wrong. No one has given so much progress to this country, so much respect to law, so much respect to the media as Musharraf did,” said Musharraf’s lawyer, Akhtar Shah.

Shah said Musharraf’s actions during the state of emergency he declared in 2007, were done “on the advice of the prime minister and with the consultation of everybody and all the stakeholders. This action that he had carried out on the advice of the cabinet was, at that time, for the betterment of country. It was in the interest of the country.”

It is the first time in Pakistan’s history that a former army chief and ruler of the country has been sentenced to death.

Musharraf, who was sentenced in absentia, has been out of the country since 2016, when he was allowed to leave on bail to seek medical treatment abroad.

Treason

He has been living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and is said to be very ill and unlikely to travel home to face the sentence.

Musharraf was hospitalised again last week in Dubai. In a message taped two weeks ago, he said he was ready to record a statement about the treason case by video link but that he was unable to travel to Pakistan.

Pakistan and the UAE have no extradition treaty and Emirati authorities are unlikely to arrest Musharraf. If he were to return, however, he would have the right to challenge his conviction and sentence in court.

One judge on the panel of three had opposed the death sentence, according to Akhtar Sheikh, one of Musharraf’s lawyers.

After the sentence was announced, Pakistan’s information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told reporters that prime minister Imran Khan’s government would “review in detail” the verdict before commenting on it.

Purge

In 2013, when Sharif was back in office, he accused Musharraf of high treason over the state of emergency, and the general was formally charged the following year.

Sharif himself was ousted again in 2017 and was later convicted of corruption. He left Pakistan on bail earlier this month to travel to London for medical treatment.

Sharif’s spokesperson, Ahsan Iqbal, praised the ruling, saying Gen Musharraf deserved the death sentence because he had ousted an elected government. 

“We welcome this court ruling,” Iqbal said, adding that the judges had done justice to a former dictator.