Supporters of Pakistan’s former president and head of All Pakistan Muslim League Pervez Musharraf chant slogans outside his residence in Islamabad, yesterday.
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court yesterday ordered the arrest of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who immediately sped off to his villa on the edge of Islamabad, protected by barbed wire and armed police.
Musharraf faced no resistance from scores of law enforcement agents when he left the Islamabad High Court after the judge ordered his arrest over his controversial decision to dismiss judges when he imposed emergency rule in 2007.
Police guarded the main gate of the luxury villa and closed access to the street in the upmarket suburb of Chak Shahzad where TV trucks and other media camped outside Musharraf’s gate.
Dozens of supporters chanted “this is injustice” and “long live Musharraf” as his office appealed against the order in the Supreme Court, denouncing the decision as motivated by “personal vendettas”.
“We expect this unwarranted judicial activism, seemingly motivated by personal vendettas... will cease and the Supreme Court, without prejudice, will immediately grant necessary relief,” his office said.
A spokesman for his All Pakistan Muslim League said Musharraf will appeal in the highest court against the arrest order. He said if the Supreme Court upholds the order, then Musharraf is expected to be put under house arrest, describing the retired general as “composed and confident”. “I think if an arrest is necessary, the authorities will declare the farmhouse a sub-jail,” APML spokesman Muhammad Amjad said. “Musharraf did not flee the court. Actually there was no police official to arrest him and nobody tried to arrest him,” he added.
It remains unclear if and when he could be detained, but yesterday’s order was the latest humiliating blow against the man who returned to Pakistan last month to contest elections after four years in self-imposed exile.
The Supreme Court is hearing a separate petition from lawyers demanding that Musharraf face trial for treason for subverting the constitution by imposing emergency law in 2007, punishable by death or life imprison.
A senior police official said on condition of anonymity that normal procedure would have been an immediate arrest at the court, but conceded no effort appeared to have been made to detain him there. “His house will now most likely be declared as sub-jail and he will be put under house-arrest,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The case is one of three against Musharraf in the Pakistani courts. He is also accused of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during a military operation in 2006.
The retired general seized power in 1999 in a bloodless coup, which was widely welcomed at the time in Pakistan. The man he ousted, prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is now the frontrunner in the campaign for general elections on May 11.
Musharraf was forced out, threatened with impeachment in August 2008 and has had a rude awakening since flying back to Pakistan on March 24.
On Tuesday, he was disqualified from running for parliament, ending his ambitions of a political comeback built on the promise that he alone could “save” the country from poverty and insecurity.
A day earlier, he told journalists that he was prepared to go to jail, at a press conference meant to unveil his party manifesto but overshadowed by a barrage of questions about the cases against him.
The US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch called on the military authorities overseeing Musharraf’s protection to ensure that he presents himself for arrest. “General Musharraf’s act today underscores his disregard for due legal process and indicates his assumption that as a former army chief and military dictator he can evade accountability for abuses,” said Pakistan director, Ali Dayan Hasan.
“Continued military protection for General Musharraf will make a mockery of claims that Pakistan’s armed forces support the rule of law and bring the military further disrepute that it can ill afford,” he added.
On Wednesday, a court in Rawalpindi extended his bail until April 24 over Bhutto’s killing. The former prime minister died in a gun and suicide attack at the end of an election rally in the garrison city on December 27, 2007.
In 2010 a UN report said Bhutto’s death could have been prevented and accused Musharraf’s government of failing to give her adequate protection.
Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is chairman of the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party, has accused Musharraf of her murder. AFP
