As Pervez Musharraf prepares to come good on his pledge to return to Pakistan ahead of parliamentary elections, a string of cases await the ex-military ruler.
Besides the security issue relating to his unconditional alliance with the United States in the war against terror and pending court cases in connection with the Lal Masjid operation, the former president can be arrested for the murder of two political heavyweights: former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Baloch tribal chieftain Akbar Bugti.
Already arrest warrants have been issued in Musharraf’s name in connection with the two murder cases.
Musharraf was at the helm of affairs when Bugti was slain during a military operation in 2006. Since then, peace has not returned to the restive province. A court in Balochistan issued arrest warrants for the military ruler in the Bugti murder case.
Barely a year after Bugti’s death, the twice elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
In 2011, during a trial of the Benazir murder case, a Rawalpindi Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) declared Musharraf a proclaimed offender.
Musharraf’s bank accounts were frozen and his property was attached on the court’s orders. His spouse, Begum Sehba Musharraf’s application against the court’s order is yet to be entertained.
Sehba said since her husband gifted their farm house in Islamabad to her, the court illegally ordered its confiscation. She also mentioned in her application, that the money in their bank accounts were reserved for the welfare of the general population, hence they cannot be frozen.
After toppling the Nawaz Sharif-led government in 1999, Musharraf got himself elected as the President of Pakistan in an army uniform and stepped down from office in 2008. Since then, Musharraf has been in a self-imposed exile and the trial of cases in which he stands accused are conducted in several courts of the country. Musharraf is now chairman of his own political party All Pakistan Muslim League (APML). In the past, he has said that he would contest elections from Chitral.
Though Musharraf has pledged to return to Pakistan a week after the interim government is installed, he will have to face the independent judiciary for legal course. He deposed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry twice, who in turn was reinstated as result of a mass lawyer’s movement.
Article 6 can be initiated against Musharraf for unconstitutionally imposing martial law – despite the apex court’s restraining order – and sacking judges of the Supreme Court including the chief justice. Musharraf’s unconstitutional move was thereby termed ‘Emergency Plus’.
Recently, a commission investigating the Lal Masjid incident issued a notice to Musharraf asking him to appear before it. However, he refused to abide by the notice.