Judge who sentenced Musharraf says ‘only watches wrestling on TV’

ISLAMABAD: Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, who headed the three-judge panel that has sentenced to death former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, said on Friday that he only watches wrestling on TV, in a comment that has been seen as an apparent disregard of the controversy the verdict has stirred.
Musharraf was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death by a special court in Islamabad on Tuesday. In the ruling’s detailed version, which was released by the court on Thursday, it is ordered that if the former president dies before his execution, the body should be “hanged for three days” at D-Chowk, close to the parliament building in Islamabad.
Justice Seth, who is also the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, gave the impression that everything was business as usual for him on Friday morning when he came to the court, despite the federal government’s announcement that it would seek his dismissal.
Advocate Muhammad Muazzam Butt, a lawyer at the Peshawar High Court, told Arab News that to his surprise the chief justice was calm and composed, and when Butt told him “you appear so relaxed,” he replied: “I just watch wrestling on TV.”
“I think Justice Waqar wanted to say that he doesn’t monitor news on TV channels and that he was not aware of the ongoing media debate on his judgment,” Butt said, adding that throughout his career, he has always seen the judge calm and poised.
“Everything was normal in the morning when I came to the court,” Justice Seth told him.
On Friday, a day after the detailed verdict in Musharraf’s case was announced, the government said it would file a reference against Justice Seth to the Supreme Judicial Council. The Pakistan Army also slammed the ruling.
The Pakistan Bar Council, the apex body of lawyers, disapproved of the criticism and said it would file a petition in the Supreme Court to defend the judge.
Justice Seth belongs to a family of entrepreneurs in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa.
Born in 1961, he started his legal carrier as advocate of a lower court in 1985 and became a judge in 2011. He has been serving as the chief of the Peshawar High Court since June 28, 2018.