- Army chief General Raheel Sharif and ISI DG Gen Rizwan Akhtar call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss ‘country’s internal and external security situation’, as Gen Musharraf reaches Dubai early on Friday
- Source says Nawaz ‘has forgiven Musharraf for what he did to him after his coup in 1999’
- Musharraf tells supporters in Dubai he will return to Pakistan after medical treatment, face treason charges
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday met with the top military leadership, including Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Rizwan Akhtar to discuss “the country’s external and internal security situation”.
However, according to informed sources, the meeting also addressed the controversial departure of former military dictator Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf from the country.
Sources said the military brass was appreciative of the role PM Sharif played in not dragging the issue any further despite stiff resistance from the opposition as well as from within his own party.
“The military brass praised the role played by PM Sharif and federal ministers for removing the former military dictator’s name from the Exit Control List,” a government source said.
“I personally pardoned Musharraf,” the premier was quoted as saying regarding the leader who overthrew his government in 1999.
The source credited Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar as the man who steered the government’s decision to lift the travel ban on Musharraf. Chaudhry Nisar played an active role.
“Nisar not only convinced the premier but also ensured the civil and military leadership were on the same page while dealing with the case amicably,” he added.
“Although there’s a lot of dissent within the ruling party on the Musharraf issue, PM Nawaz will handle it,” the source further said.
The PM House confirmed the meeting but did not delve into details.
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday chaired a meeting to discuss the external and internal security situation of the country at the PM House in Islamabad,” the official statement read.
The meeting was officially convened to discuss the recent bus attack in Peshawar and the progress in the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb, it added.
All officials in attendance condemned the attack on a bus which killed 15 and injured several others. While it was noted that Operation Zarb-e-Azb had made significant gains, the participants reaffirmed their resolve to eradicate terrorism and extremism from the country.
MUSHARRAF FLIES TO DUBAI:
Meanwhile, Gen Musharraf flew to Dubai early Friday for what his lawyers said was an urgent spinal cord related issue after a three-year travel ban was lifted on Thursday.
Musharraf boarded an Emirates flight bound for Dubai in the wee hours of Friday. The flight departed from Karachi airport at 3.55am.
A news agency quoted an airport source as saying that the retired general appeared “relaxed”.
“He was the last person to board the plane and then the gate was closed,” the source said.
A large convoy of police and paramilitary rangers left Musharraf’s home in Karachi at around 3:30am as a decoy for the waiting media crowding his street, while the general travelled to the airport separately.
Lawyers for the former president, who is facing multiple charges including treason and murder over the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, have said he needs urgent medical treatment not available in Pakistan.
“I am going abroad for treatment but will return to face the cases against me,” a party spokesman in Karachi quoted him as saying. “I am a commando. I love my motherland.”
“Six to eight weeks are required for the treatment and then he would go back home,” said Dr Amjad Malik, a spokesman for Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League.
COMPLYING WITH COURT ORDER, NOT BACKTRACKING:
Musharraf was banned from leaving Pakistan in March 2013 after he returned to the country on an ill-fated mission to contest elections. The former ruler was barred from taking part in the polls and instead had to face a barrage of legal cases.
While the opposition parties had a field day slamming the ruling PML-N for backtracking on its tall claims of prosecuting Gen Musharraf on treason charges for abrogating the constitution, the PML-N quarters took pains to show that the government was simply complying with court orders.
On Thursday, the government declined to put Musharraf’s name on the no-fly list. A day earlier, the top court had said the ex-president could travel abroad, but said the government had the authority to put his name back on the ECL if it wanted to keep Musharraf in the country to face Article 6 proceedings.
“The government has decided to allow Musharraf to travel abroad for medical treatment. He [Musharraf] has also committed that he will face all cases against him in court,” Interior Minister Nisar announced on Thursday at a news conference in Islamabad.
Nisar said the government was removing the retired general’s name from the ECL on the directives of the Supreme Court.
The former president’s lawyers have committed before the apex court that he will return to the country after four to six weeks, he added.
On Wednesday, the SC rejected the federal government’s two-year-old appeal against the Sindh High Court’s decision to remove Musharraf’s name from the ECL.
On the same day, the former president reserved a seat with a foreign airline at 4:30am but the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intervened, saying he would not be allowed to travel unless the government removed his name from the no-fly list. The booking had to be cancelled.
“Today his lawyers moved a proper application for removing his name from the ECL, after which the government decided to allow him to go abroad for treatment following the apex court’s judgment,” Nisar said at the media briefing.
The minister added the detailed judgment on this case was not received but the decision to remove Musharraf’s name from the ECL was taken as per the apex court’s ruling.
Nisar said every decision had some motives but there was no confusion regarding the case against the former military ruler.
Without taking its name, the interior minister criticised the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for censuring the government “as if the government would lose the right to govern if Musharraf was allowed to go abroad”.
“What did they do during their five-year tenure despite booking Musharraf over Benazir Bhutto’s murder?” Nisar questioned. “We initiated the treason case against him and opposed every move for removing his name from the ECL. Everyone including the government has to follow the verdict of the Supreme Court.”
If the government, he added, is willing to allow Musharraf to travel abroad, it would not have filed appeals against the judgment of first the lower court and then the high court’s orders.
MUSHARRAF’S COUP, PM IS OVER IT:
He also brushed aside speculation of any clandestine deals behind the decision to allow Musharraf to leave the country.
“The prime minister has no personal grudges against Musharraf and he has pardoned him for whatever he did with him,” Nisar clarified.
He added the government did not put anyone’s name on the no-fly list anymore. The powers have been delegated to the National Accountability Bureau, FIA and the defence headquarters.
Musharraf’s name was put on the ECL after he returned to Pakistan in 2013, hoping to lead his party into the general elections.
He was, however, disqualified from contesting the polls and found himself fighting an array of charges relating to his time in power.
Musharraf was the army chief when he seized power in a coup in 1999. He was the president till 2008 when a democratically elected government came into power and ousted him. He left the country to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.
The charges relate to the former general’s imposition of a state of emergency in November 2007 and the assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto the same year. Musharraf, 72, denies all the charges and has termed them “politically motivated”.