A three-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench on Thursday overturned the life imprisonment sentence of three men suspected of planning an attack on former president Pervez Musharraf.

The three accused — Intakhab Abbasi, Zafar Ali and Muhammad Kabeer — had been convicted of planning to attack the Army House in a bid to target retired General Pervez Musharraf.

They had initially been sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court but later the Lahore High Court turned their sentences into life imprisonment.

The men, who have now been set free, were also accused of having links with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

According to the judges, the verdict was overturned due to lack of evidence. "The prosecution's neglect led to the fish escaping the net," Justice Dost Muhammad remarked during the hearing.

"The prosecution failed to prove its case," Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked.

In a separate case, the SC overturned a death sentence handed to a man convicted of multiple murders in a 10-year-old case citing a "lack of evidence".

The suspect, Saeed Akhtar, was sentenced to death by a trial court some 10 years ago for the murder of five people. The Lahore High Court upheld the trial court's verdict in the case at the time.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, decided today to overturn the verdict citing a lack of evidence.

The court, as it overturned the death sentence, said that the prosecution had failed to prove the case and that there were no eyewitnesses to prove the legitimacy of the prosecution's claim.

The SC has recently overturned a number of death sentences for a lack of evidence, lambasting the prosecution for not doing its job properly.