Pakistan’s former military dictator Pervez Musharraf was ordered to appear before a special court on May 2 by the Supreme Court in the high treason case and warned him that he would lose the right of defence if he failed to turn up.
A special court indicted General (retd) Musharraf for high treason in March 2014. Musharraf, 75, left for Dubai in 2016 to “seek medical treatment” and has not returned since. Last month, he was admitted to a hospital in Dubai after suffering a reaction from a rare disease.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa was hearing a petition filed by a lawyer, who pointed out that the proceedings of the treason case — being heard by a special court since 2014 — had come to a halt as Musharraf had not returned to the country since 2016.
