ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday said the government had allowed former dictator Pervez Musharraf to travel abroad to seek medical attention after the Supreme Court lifted a ban on his foreign travel yesterday.
“The government has decided to allow Musharraf to travel abroad for treatment. He [Musharraf] has also committed he will face all cases against him in court.” The interior minister said “Musharraf has promised to return in four to six weeks.”
Nisar said Musharraf’s lawyers had formally asked the government to allow foreign travel to the former president.
“Following his lawyers' application, the government has decided — in light of the decision taken by the apex court — to allow Musharraf to travel abroad for treatment.”
Read: SC lifts ban on Musharraf going abroad.
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.”
Without naming the PPP, the interior minister said: “Why did they not initiate a single case against Musharraf during their five years of rule?”
Also read: And treason for all
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 Supreme Court, 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.”
Know more: In conversation with Pervez Musharraf
Later, the interior ministry issued a notification to formally announce the removal of Musharraf's name from the ECL.
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 was 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 Supreme Court 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 (retd) Pervez Musharraf from passing any legal order for regulating his custody or restricting his movement,” the order said.
