Musharraf’s lawyers say ‘hasty’ treason trial verdict worse than that of Bhutto’s death sentence

ISLAMABAD: The legal team of former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, who was given a death sentence by the special court on Tuesday, maintained that their client was denied the right to fair trial.

Musharraf’s legal team addressed media today, where they said that the former president’s trial was done in haste.

Advocate Salman Safdar said that Musharraf is quite unwell and did not know anything about the verdict in the case.

Safdar said that a case should also have sentenced other suspects.

"This [ruling] is worse than the decision to hang Zulfikar Ali Bhutto," said Safdar during a press conference. "There are various mistakes in the procedure."

He said that legal requirements were missing in the case and that an equal opportunity was not given to Musharraf. Safdar said that it was unfortunate how a 77-year-old former president was tried for treason and not even heard. 

Earlier on Tuesday, the special court formed to hear a high treason case against former president Pervez Musharraf sentenced the former dictator to death for imposing a state of emergency on November 3, 2007.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had filed the treason case against Musharraf over the former dictator's imposition of an extra-constitutional emergency in November 2007.

The former army chief was indicted in the case in March 2014 after he appeared before the court. He had rejected all the charges.