Pakistan opposition parties on Monday rejected the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision to quash the death sentence awarded to former President Pervez Musharraf by a special court in the high treason case.

A three-member bench of the LHC, hearing a set of petitions filed by Musharraf challenging multiple actions against him, ruled that the high treason case against the former leader was not prepared in accordance with the law, Dawn news reported.

On December 17, Musharraf was sentenced to death by a Pakistan court.

In reaction to the LHC’s verdict, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Nafisa Shah said,”Today is an unfortunate day for the rule of law.”

Shah said that the special court had been constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and it consisted of judges from three high courts of the country.

She added that the appeal against the verdict should have been filed in the Supreme Court and not in the LHC.

While speaking to Dawn news, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah Khan also expressed reservations over the verdict.

The petition also challenged the verdict’s graphic paragraph 66 which read: “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict (Musharraf) and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk (in front of the Parliament House), and be hanged for three days”.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) took up Musharraf’s petition against the special court hearing the high treason case against him as well as his civil miscellaneous application that urged the high court to halt the treason proceedings.

Earlier, Musharraf filed an application in the Lahore High Court (LHC), urging it to stay the proceedings pending before a special court in Islamabad.

In November, a special court in Islamabad reserved its verdict in the high treason case involving Musharraf.

In October, the Islamabad High Court had dismissed a petition that sought deletion of terrorism charges against the former president and transfer of the judges, detention case from the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATS) to the sessions court.

The former President has been seeking deletion of terrorism charges and subsequent transfer of his case from the ATC to the sessions court on the ground that initially the FIR was registered under the Pakistan Penal Code against him in connection with the detention of 60 judges of the superior judiciary after the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007.

Currently, the former military chief is in Dubai. He was admitted to a hospital after his health deteriorated last month.