Pak court extends ex-President Musharraf’s remand by 14 days

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court yesterday ordered former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to remain in custody for a further two weeks ahead of his trial for unlawfully sacking judges during his rule, officials said.
“Pervez Musharraf’s remand is extended for judicial lock-up for 14 days, he should be presented before the court on May 18,” Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi, ordered.
Police had asked the judge to grant the custodial extension saying the investigation into Musharraf’s activities was still under way.
Lawyers for Musharraf, who is locked in his own home, which has been declared a sub-jail while he is awaiting trial, filed a bail application in the court and the judge fixed a hearing for May 6.
The court was also asked if Musharraf’s trial could be held inside his plush villa, citing security reasons, but the matter was left pending.
“It has been brought into my notice that the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad issued a notification for the jail trial, but approval from Islamabad high court is needed in this regard,” the judge said.
Musharraf was placed in police custody at his home following his arrest on April 19, in an unprecedented move against a former army chief of staff ahead of key elections.
He was arrested for making a decision to sack judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007 — a move that hastened his downfall.
He also faces charges of conspiracy to murder opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and over the death of a rebel leader during a 2006 military operation.
However, his party on Friday announced it will boycott next week’s historic election after a court on Tuesday banned him from standing for the rest of his life.
Officials visit prisoner in India
Pakistani embassy officials visited a hospital in north India yesterday where a Pakistani prisoner was in critical condition in the intensive care unit after being attacked by an Indian inmate.
Convicted murderer Sanaullah Ranjay suffered multiple head injuries in a prison in India’s northern city of Jammu in an apparent tit-for-tat attack after an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, was fatally assaulted in Pakistan.
On Friday, Ranjay was airlifted to a government hospital in the city of Chandigarh, 250 km north of New Delhi.
A spokeswoman for the government hospital said Ranjay was in the intensive care unit and on a ventilator as his condition “continues to remain critical.” The Pakistani High Commission (embassy) officials “came to the hospital and we have given them Ranjay’s medical update,” added Manju Wadwalkar, the spokeswoman of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Hospital.
Ranjay, who hails from the city of Sialkot in Pakistan, was attacked by a prisoner who was identified as a former Indian army soldier nearly 24 hours after Singh’s death in Lahore.
India’s foreign ministry said Pakistan High Commission officials had been given daily access to Ranjay.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said earlier in the week in a statement that the “obvious retaliation to the death of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh is condemnable.”