Thursday, April 18, 2013

Musharraf flees court as police told to arrest him over 2007 sacking of judges

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Pakistan's former military dictator visibly shocked by ruling after returning from exile to 'save' the country in elections next month

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military dictator, beat a hasty retreat from an Islamabad courtroom on Thursday after a judge ruled he should be arrested.

The high court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had barely finished reading out his denunciation of Musharraf when the former general fled the court.

Musharraf appeared visibly shocked as Siddiqui said Musharraf should be "taken into custody and dealt with in accordance with the law".

Amid chaotic scenes in the small room, packed with lawyers – many of whom were standing directly in front of the judge's bench – Pakistan's former president stalked out of the building and was whisked directly to his fortified mansion on the edge of the capital.

With no one apparently primed to arrest a man who returned to his homeland in March after four years of self-imposed exile, his bodyguards easily pushed their way through the many policemen milling around the court.

The extraordinary getaway left Pakistanis wondering whether authorities would dare fulfil the court's orders to arrest a man who is still presumed to enjoy some protection from the military, an institution that has been somewhat weakened since Musharraf was its chief.

Siddiqui had been considering a bail application in a case in which Musharraf is accused of illegally suspending and holding under house arrest senior judges during his desperate attempt to cling to power in 2007.

The incident has made Musharraf, a 69-year-old former commando, into a hate figure among Pakistan's feisty legal profession, some of whom had gathered in large numbers outside the court and shouted in jubilation: "Look who is running, Musharraf is running!"

In his written judgment, Siddiqui said Musharraf's short-lived attempt to usurp the power of judges in 2007 had spread "alarm in the lawyers' community and terror throughout Pakistan".

He added: "Moreover, this shameful act lowered the honour, prestige and status of the country in the eyes of the nations spread over the entire global face."

On Thursday Pakistani TV stations replayed again and again the moment when a man who once enjoyed absolute power was bundled into a waiting armoured vehicle by his security team, some of whom stood on the car's running boards as it edged into the morning traffic.

He was taken to his "farmhouse", a purpose-built mansion in the expensive neighbourhood of Chak Shahzad that was supposed to serve as his retirement home, but which may yet be designated a "sub jail" where he could be kept under house arrest.

In the hours after the court ruling, Musharraf remained unseen behind tall walls crowned with razor wire.

A team of riot police clad in body armour quickly sealed off the road leading to his compound – a Mediterranean-style estate that boasts a swimming pool and jogging track.

A few dozen well-wishers, mostly volunteers for his All Pakistan Muslim League – a political party Musharraf founded in 2010 – gathered outside.

"We do not accept the ruling of the court, they are just doing it to interfere with Pervez Musharraf's election campaign," said Haider Zeb Akhtar, an 18-year-old politics student standing at the gate.

Musharraf had successfully avoided his judicial tormentors for the last four years, living in London and Dubai.

He flew into Pakistan last month and announced plans to "save" the country only after his lawyers won him "pre-arrest bail" in the cases against him, ensuring that he could campaign for elections to be held on 11 May without being arrested.

But it was always a risk given the antipathy of Pakistan's lawyers and the many cases against him.

As well as Thursday's case, there are other ongoing attempts to privately prosecute him for allegedly conspiring to assassinate the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and for killing a tribal separatist leader.

Some analysts believe the arrest order puts the military establishment, in particular the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, in an awkward position.

The army has been anxious not to be seen to be meddling in civilian matters but is also thought to be concerned not to create any precedent for former high-ranking soldiers being tried in civilian courts.

"Musharraf is not happy with Kayani because Musharraf knows all too well how powerful the army chief is," said Asad Munir, a retired brigadier.

"He knows that Kayani could have quietly told the judges that Musharraf was not be humiliated and hounded."

Munir said that although Musharraf had made a disastrous error in returning to Pakistan, he had been justified in fleeing the court, not least because of the risk from the country's "rowdy and violent" lawyers. "These rascal, hooligan judges are pandering to popular opinion in Punjab who want to see Musharraf behind bars," he said.

One way out of the predicament could be the supreme court. Yesterday Musharraf's judges attempted to lodge an appeal but their paper work was rejected. They will try again on Friday.

Aasia Ishaque, a spokeswoman for the All Pakistan Muslim League, said Musharraf was prepared to answer to the law, but that the high court in Islamabad was clearly biased against him.

"The order for him to be arrested is illegal so it is right for him to avoid arrest and go and seek legal remedy at the supreme court," she said.

"The media reports that say he fled from the court is completely untrue, the police themselves opened the gates to let his cavalcade leave."

Even if the order is overruled by the supreme court, the episode caps a disastrous few weeks for Musharraf.

His hopes of winning a seat in parliament were wrecked when the election commission ruled him ineligible to contest any of the four constituencies he had applied for.

He also admitted in a television interview to having authorised some CIA drone strikes against terrorists whilst he was leader, a remarkably casual reversal of his country's longstanding public denials of any involvement in the hugely unpopular secret air campaigning in the restless border areas.

But most of all a politician who is widely thought to have become bored and even lonely living abroad where he was increasingly seen as a man of merely historical interest, he has been ignored by his fellow countrymen.

The media's election coverage has barely mentioned Musharraf's campaign, focusing instead on politicians that have greatly eclipsed Musharraf in importance.

After hyping his return and boasting of his large number of Facebook followers, fewer than 2,000 people came to greet him when he landed in Karachi – a feeble turnout by Pakistani standards.


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Jon Boone 19 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/pervez-musharraf-flees-court-avoids-arrest
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