And their timing
It is an irony of history that Pervez Musharraf, who as President and COAS had put under arrest almost all legitimate Supreme Court judges, has petitioned the apex court to allow him to proceed abroad for treatment. The former military ruler had come to Pakistan hoping that hundreds of thousands of his facebook admirers would come out in strength to receive him on March 24, 2013. The homecoming however turned out to be anti-climactic as only a small crowd of old friends and their families turned up at Karachi airport. This must have been heartbreaking.
Musharraf was hale and hearty till he had a fit of panic while on his way to a court in Islamabad and diverted his entourage to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) where he got admitted for pain in the chest. Musharraf has subsequently complained of numerous common ailments. What is uncommon about them is that they can only be treated abroad. He is as impatient to leave the country as he was to come here. What stands in the way of his release are the courts.
The panic attacks have taken the form of high blood pressure, complaints of sinking heart, pain in back and foot, or a black out. They have become too common during the last ten days being coincidental with a number of court judgments against the former military ruler. The Balochistan High Court has turned down his acquittal in the Bugti murder case. This was followed by an Islamabad court issuing non-bailable warrants for his arrest for ‘deliberate’ absence from the proceedings of the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Then came the judgment by a Supreme Court bench holding Musharraf alone responsible for the proclamation of emergency in 2007. The bench directed the special court to complete the trial of the accused as soon as possible without further delay. Many think if the former general is sent out of the country he would be fit as a fiddle in no time.