RAWALPINDI: A team of Islamabad police visited the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) on Monday to serve arrest warrants on former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf by the special court.

According to police sources, the legal documents were received by Gen Musharraf’s lawyers, Faisal Chaudhry and Ijaz Anwar, at the hospital.

The former president’s close aide, retired Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, presented himself as his guarantor, assuring the police team that Gen Musharraf would definitely appear before the special court on Feb 7, the next date of hearing in the high treason case.

The sources said Gen Musharraf’s lawyers handed over surety bonds to the police team.

As the AFIC is in the jurisdiction of a Rawalpindi district police station, the Islamabad police team, headed by SP retired Captain Mohammad Ilyas, first visited the R.A. Bazar police station to report the purpose of its arrival in the district. The SP was accompanied by one inspector of Shahzad Town police station and two sub-inspectors of Islamabad police.

According to the criminal procedure code (Cr.P.C), when police are assigned a task outside their own district, they have to first report to the police station concerned about their arrival and then proceed to the accused person.

Ahmed Raza Kasuri, one of Gen Musharraf’s lawyers, told Dawn that the lawyers’ team of the former president had already completed its homework for the next hearing.

He, however, refused to share anything with the media, saying that “the opponents will exploit it”.

“We will show our cards before the special court on Feb 7 and will give a surprise to Nawaz Sharif, the special court and also to the prosecution,” he added.

The IG of Islamabad police, Sikandar Hayat, confirmed that a police team had visited Rawalpindi to serve arrest warrants on Gen Musharraf in compliance with the special court’s order.

The order stated that Gen Musharraf be produced before the court on Feb 7. If Gen Musharraf or anyone else as his guarantor assured police that he would appear before the court in the next hearing and submit surety bonds worth Rs2.5 million, a report in this regard would be submitted to the court during the next hearing.