Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf criticized allegations against him as “politically motivated” yesterday, following his arrest in a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in power.
Musharraf was arrested a day after he made a dramatic escape from a court in Islamabad on Thursday to avoid being detained.
A magistrate had raised the stakes earlier yesterday when he ordered Musharraf be placed under house arrest for two days before he is due to appear in court.
Meanwhile, former Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Atiq said yesterday that Musharraf should be allowed to leave the country because his presence might lead to chaos and procrastinate elections.
He described Musharraf's arrest as a political issue saying action against the former army chief could boomerang and might create law and order problems. The advisable option, Atiq said, would be to send him to the UAE or any European country after agreement among political forces. This, he said, had been done in the past too.
Musharraf's office said the charges against him are baseless and have been cooked up by sections of what it described as an “overzealous judiciary” and “unscrupulous lawyers.”
“These allegations are politically motivated, and I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail,” Musharraf said in a message posted on his Facebook page Friday after he was arrested.
Musharraf has received very little public support since he returned. He was only met by a couple of thousand people at the airport in Karachi when he landed on March 24, and an angry lawyer threw a shoe at him a few days later as he walked through a court building in the city.
