The General is free to walk away

The federal government on Thursday decided to allow former military dictator and All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) chief General (r) Pervez Musharraf to travel abroad and seek medical treatment, after the Supreme Court removed a travel ban on the former strongman who is facing high treason charges.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by key cabinet members.

A well placed source in the federal government told Pakistan Today that in the face of stiff opposition from some of the federal ministers, the prime minister agreed to the proposal of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to let Musharraf off the hook after the SC verdict.

The source said that prior to the important huddle with his close aides; the prime minister held a separate meeting with the interior minister and deliberated upon the matter in detail.

The decision was announced by Interior Minister Nisar at a press conference in the evening. The minister said that the government, in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment, had decided to allow the former president to travel abroad for necessary medical treatment.

“Musharraf has conveyed to the government his plans to return after four to six weeks of medical treatment abroad,” Nisar said, adding that the former dictator has also committed that he will face all cases against him in court.

Nisar said that Musharraf’s lawyers had filed a proper application and “in the light of the SC’s decision, the government has allowed him to go abroad for medical treatment”.

Lashing out at opposition’s criticism of the PML-N government for not going hard on Musharraf, who is facing a treason case for abrogating the constitution and imposing emergency in 2007, Nisar said: “Those who gave a safe passage to Musharraf and offered him a guard of honour are now politicising the matter.”

Defending the incumbent government, the interior minister said in the past two years “the government has opposed Musharraf’s foreign travel in all courts”.

He said the SC, while removing the ban on Musharraf’s travel abroad, had left it up to the government to make decisions on whether his movement should be restricted.

“Musharraf had attacked the courts and the judiciary. Today, if the apex court has struck his name off the ECL, everyone should respect that.”

Brushing aside the impression of a deal between Musharraf and the federal government, Nisar said that Musharraf had been accorded approval to travel abroad for treatment by the special court, the Sindh High Court and now the Supreme Court.

“I assure you that there is no behind the scenes settlement,” the minister said and added that the SC had examined the case from all angles.

Taking the PPP leadership to task for criticising the PML-N government’s stance on the Musharraf case, Nisar said that it was surprising hear the party which gave amnesty to Musharraf when they were in government criticising the PML-N government for complying with the court’s orders.

“Who gave Musharraf a guard of honour and allowed him to travel abroad? Who registered not a single case against him despite remaining in power for five years? When we came into power, the PML-N initiated cases against Musharraf in line with the constitution. We kept his name on the ECL for the last two years and did not allow him to leave the country. If there was a deal, the PML-N government would not have initiated cases against him,” he said.

Nisar said that Nawaz Sharif had forgiven the maltreatment meted out to him and his family and had never acted in vengeance against anyone. However, he said, the government did not forgive what Musharraf had done to the nation.

“The verdict was apparently issued on humanitarian grounds after his [Pervez Musharraf] lawyers presented a medical report while also keeping legal aspects in consideration,” interior minister observed.

Nisar said the government had established a transparent system of ECL, omitting more than 50,000 names from the black list and 9,500 from the ECL, as many had been there for up to 30 years.

Nisar said that they had also refused the inclusion of a person’s name on the grounds of personal enmity and petty issues, since “this is a matter of an individual’s integrity”.

MUSHARRAF, A FREE MAN:

The apex court on Wednesday lifted a ban on Musharraf’s foreign travel by upholding a June 12, 2014, Sindh High Court (SHC) order that called for removing his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).

But the order from the top court came with the rider that the federal government or the three-judge special court trying the retired general for treason were free to make decisions to regulate his custody or restrict his movement.

“For reasons to be recorded separately, this appeal is dismissed,” Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali dictated while heading a five-judge SC bench.

“However, this order will not preclude the federation of Pakistan or the special court, seized with the proceedings under Article 6 (high treason) of the constitution against Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf from passing any legal order for regulating his custody or restricting his movement,” the order said.

In the appeal filed in June 2014, the government had requested to suspend the SHC decision, asking the Supreme Court to stop Musharraf from traveling abroad.

On February 25, Musharraf went to the apex court, seeking one-time permission to go abroad for medical treatment, saying he required a surgery as soon as possible to avoid serious medical complications.

The retired general was banned from leaving the country in 2013 after he returned to Pakistan on an ill-fated mission to contest elections.

MUSHARRAF SET TO LEAVE PAKISTAN:

Following the Interior Ministry notification announcing the removal of his name from the ECL, Gen Musharraf reportedly booked a seat for Dubai on a foreign airline for 3.55am Friday.