Pakistan to fire judge who wants Musharraf’s body hanged

Pakistan’s government said on Thursday it will seek to remove a judge who demanded while sentencing former ruler Pervez Musharraf to death that his body be publicly hanged for three days if he should die before being arrested.

Musharraf was sentenced to death in absentia on Tuesday in a treason case related to the state of emergency he imposed in 2007 while in power, officials said. It was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a former army chief and ruler of the country has been sentenced to death. Musharraf has been out of the country since 2016, when he was allowed to leave on bail to seek medical treatment abroad.

Military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said the remarks of Judge Waqar Ahmad Seth during sentencing of Musharraf were against human values.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s law minister told reporters in Islamabad that they were seeking Seth’s removal through the Supreme Judicial Council, a forum which holds the accountability of judges.

Mehrene Malik Adam, a spokesperson for Musharraf’s opposition All Pakistan Muslim League, said party supporters rallied across the country against the “unconstitutional inhuman verdict by a special court" against its leader.