- Former military ruler says he just wants to visit ailing mother in Dubai and will be back to face cases against him
- PML-N’s Raja Zafarul Haq says govt under immense pressure to remove Musharraf’s name from ECL
Former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf said Sunday he would not be running away from Pakistan.
“I am not running away from Pakistan. Rather, I will defend [myself] in all cases against me before a court of law,” Musharraf said to supporters gathered in Islamabad via telephone.
“I have to go out of Pakistan only to see my ailing mother and will return back to you,” he said to the gathering, adding that the cases against him are politically motivated and baseless.
He also lamented the current economic situation and claimed that when he resigned in 2008, the country had $18 billion reserves as compared to only $4 billion to $5billion today.
He condemned the Model Town incident and condoled with the families of those who had lost their lives.
Earlier, a convention of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) elected Musharraf as chairman of the party for the next term.
Earlier on Sunday, a senior government leader admitted that the government was under immense pressure to remove the name of the former military ruler from the Exit Control List (ECL) and let him go abroad.
“There is pressure on the government to allow Gen Musharraf to leave Pakistan,” Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq told the media in Rawalpindi.
The former president is currently residing in Karachi where he is receiving treatment at PNS Shifa after undergoing a heart ailment in the midst of the treason trial initiated by the incumbent government against him.
Analysts feel the friction between the government and military leadership is a result of the government’s pursuance of the Musharraf treason trial.
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