Death penalty to Pervez Musharraf: Who’s who of three judges of special court

ISLAMABAD: Who’s who of the three judges including the Peshawar High Court (PHC) chief justice, who formed part of the special court that handed death sentence to former dictator Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf for high treason?

PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, who headed the special tribunal, was born to a respectable business family of Dera Ismail Khan on March 16, 1961, according to his profile appearing on the PHC website.

He received his secondary education in 1977 fromCantonment Public School, Peshawar and higher secondary school certificate from the Federal Government Inter College for Boys in 1977.

Justice Seth did his Bachelor of Science degree from Islamia College, Peshawar in 1981 and Bachelor of Arts (additional) from University of Peshawar 1982. He did his LLB from Khyber Law College, Peshawar in 1985 and MA (Political Science) from University of Peshawar in 1986.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the lower courts on Dec 18, 1985; as an advocate of the High Court on March 22, 1990; and as advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on May 24, 2008. He was elevated to the bench as additional judge on August 2, 2011, remained the banking judge of the PHC and company judge of the PHC; and member of the subordinate judiciary service tribunal. He took oath as the PHC chief justice on June 28, 2018 and will retire on March 16, 2023 after attaining the age of 62. However, if he was elevated to the Supreme Court, he will superannuate on March 16, 2026.

Justice Shahid Karim born on Aug 20, 1964, was appointed judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Nov 7, 2014 and will retire on Aug 19, 2026. He is on number 24 of the seniority list of 45 justices of the LHC.

Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court (SHC) dissented from the two to one split judgment. He was born on Aug 7, 1959. He was enrolled as advocate on January 18, 1986, became lawyer of the SHC on July 23, 1989 and advocate of the Supreme Court on February 26, 2005.

He did BA (Hons) in English Literature with journalism and psychology as subsidiary subjects from Karachi University (KU) in 1979; MA English Literature from the KU in 1980; LLB from SM Law College, KU, in 1983; LLM from SM Law College, KU, in 1987.

Justice Nazar Akbar was elected general secretary of the English Literary Society, Department of English, KU, in 1977-78; Vice President, English Literary Society, Department of English, KU, in 1978-79; and magazine secretary of Harvest, the annual magazine Department of English, KU, for the issue of 1978-79.

He practiced as an advocate at Karachi from Jan 18, 1986 to May 14, l987. He served as Civil Judge & First Class Magistrate from May 15, 1987 to November 10, 1988. He was enrolled as advocate of the High Court on July 23, 1989. He appeared in several constitutional petitions and other cases on behalf of the federal government during 1989 to 1992 as long as (late) Dr. SA Wadood was the Deputy Attorney General for Pakistan & (late) Hussain Adil Khatari was Standing Counsel for Pakistan; and served as Deputy Attorney General from Feb 27, 2009 to April 21, 2011.

Justice Nazar Akbar’s articles were published: Role of Bar and Judiciary in Pakistan in the Journal of Sindh High Court Bar Association; The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All The Lawyers and A Tara Mashi amongst the Lawyers in the fortnightly journal THE LAW from Karachi. He will retire as the SHC judge on Aug 7, 2021.