ISLAMABAD: The Senate of Pakistan on Wednesday took up the issue of former military ruler General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s possible return to the country after media reports emerged he was in a critical condition in the United Arab Emirates where he had been living in self-imposed exile since 2016.
Musharraf toppled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s administration in a military coup that took place in October 1999 and later became the president of the country.
The ailing general’s family announced on Friday he had been in hospital for the last three weeks, adding that he was going through a “difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning.”
Pakistan’s top civil and military leaders have said since then that Musharraf should be allowed to return to the country, though some senators raised concern over his political record while demanding his accountability.
“[Musharraf] broke the constitution [of Pakistan] twice,” said Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. “He attacked the judiciary and dragged around a serving chief justice by his hair on roads.”
Khan said the former military ruler should be brought back and held accountable for his “crimes.”
The senator recalled that a Pakistani judge had announced capital punishment for him in a treason trial for violating the constitution.
He maintained that if Musharraf had to be pardoned and allowed to return, the country should release all prisoners from jails and shut down courts.
Pakistan’s former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, however, described the debate on the issue as a “futile exercise.”
“Such decisions are taken elsewhere,” he claimed. “Did you manage to stop him when he had to go? Will you be able to stop him when he returns?”
Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) party said, however, it was not right to oppose Musharraf’s return to the country under the current circumstances.
“Musharraf is caught between life and death,” he noted. “If we say at this stage that he should not return to Pakistan, it will not be appropriate.”
