Is Pakistan government protecting Gen. Parvez Musharraf?

Despite a Special court in Pakistan order issued in the high treason case against Pakistan’s former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on March 8 and more than a week after the expiry of a deadline given by the Pakistan’s interior ministry to him to return, the ministry has not suspended his travel document lending credence to reports that the federal government is reluctant to implement the court order.

A three-judge special court seized with the high treason case had asked the interior ministry to suspend the retired general’s passport and computerised national identity card (CNIC) besides taking steps for his extradition through Interpol, but Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on March 16 restrained the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and the directorate general of the immigration and passport from suspending the documents upon expectation of his possible return.

This special Pakistani tribunal has ordered the government to arrest former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and confiscate all his properties as it heard the high treason case against the "proclaimed offender" for imposing emergency rule in the country in 2007.

Musharraf ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008. He is wanted in Pakistan in several criminal cases including in the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The former army chief was indicted in the case in March 2014 after he appeared before the court and rejected all charges. Musharraf, left the country for Dubai in March 2016, was declared a proclaimed absconder by the court in May 2016.

A conviction for high treason carries the death penalty or life imprisonment. The court asked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials what the procedure is to bring back an absconder from abroad. The officials replied the interior ministry should send them a request after which action could be taken.

About Bench

According to Geo TV, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Yahya Afridi is heading the bench which includes Lahore High Court Chief Justice Yawar Ali and Balochistan High Court Justice Tahira Safdar. The bench, formed in 2013, is hearing the case of imposition of extra-constitutional emergency by Musharraf in November 2007.

Inputs from Dawn, Tribune and GeoTV