A Pakistan high court ruled Monday that the establishment of the special court that sentenced former President Pervez Musharraf to death last month was unconstitutional.
The three-member bench of the Lahore High Court announced its brief judgment on a petition filed by Musharraf challenging the formation of the special court in 2013 by the Pakistan Muslim League government of then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Attorney General Ishaq Ahmad Khan said to the high court, "The special court was formed without the consent of the Cabinet as required by law."
Musharraf, a general who deposed Sharif in a 1999 coup, served as Pakistan's president from 2001 until resigning in 2008 amid the threat of impeachment.
His actions in a 2007 emergency declaration were targeted in a treason case after Sharif returned to power in 2013 as prime minister. The PML government formed a special court that indicted Musharraf in 2014 on a charge of abrogating the Constitution, an offense punishable by death.
The current government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, bogged down in serious economic and political matters, is not expected to file an appeal against the high court decision. Several ministers had already condemned Musharraf's conviction as biased and personal.
Musharraf has lived in self-exile in Dubai for nearly three years and is currently undergoing medical treatment for complicated ailments. According to media reports, he thanked the high court for suspending the special court's verdict.
