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Pakistan Seeks Removal of Judge for Ordering Public Hanging of Musharraf

Ayaz Gul

   ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government announced Thursday that it was
   seeking to disqualify the head of a three-judge panelthatruled that the
   corpse of convicted former dictator Pervez Musharraf should be "hanged
   for three days" outside Parliament if he diedbefore his execution.
   In its unprecedented short order announced this week, the special
   courtissued a death sentence to the former military ruler for high
   treason for subverting the country's constitution in 2007. Musharraf,
   76, has been living in self-imposed exile since 2016 and is undergoing
   medical treatment in a Dubai hospital.

   The court has directed law enforcement officials to arrest the
   "fugitive-convict" to ensure the death sentence is carried out. But "if
   found dead, corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan, and
   be hanged for 03 days," the ruling said, referringto a place just
   outside the national Parliament.

   'Despicable order'
   Top government officials told a hurriedly called news conference
   Thursday evening that they haddecided to initiate legal proceedings
   against Judge Waqar Ahmad Seth for issuing a "despicable order"that
   they said wasin violation of the constitution.
   "Our plea is that such a judge has got no authority to be a judge of
   any high court or the Supreme Court '¦ . [H]e must immediately be
   stopped from performing his official duties," said Pakistani
   LawMinisterFaroghNaseem.
   Neither the constitution nor Islam allows public hangings, the
   ministersaid.
   Prominent Supreme Court attorneyAitzazAhsan compared the special
   court's ruling with the harsh Islamic justice of the radical Taliban in
   neighboring Afghanistan in the late 1990s, where public hangings and
   executions were common.

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