ISLAMABAD: Pakistani law minister Azam Nazir Tarar has said the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wanted to "facilitate" the return to Pakistan of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.
Musharraf has been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2016, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on bail to seek medical treatment abroad. Over the years, the former ruler was said to be very ill and earlier this month his family announced he had been hospitalized in Dubai since May.
The Pakistan army as well as top leaders, including former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif who was ousted by Musharraf in a military coup in 1999, subsequently called for the ailing former ruler to be allowed to return to Pakistan. But his family said on June 19 that it was not possible to bring him to Pakistan immediately because an experimental drug he was using was not available there. The former general has been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic metabolic disease in which abnormal proteins build up and damage organs such as the heart, kidney and liver.
“Government wants to facilitate the return of former president Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf,” Tarar said on Thursday while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Directorate of Legal Education in Islamabad.
Musharraf seized power from then PM Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and remained in power until 2008.
Sharif, who stayed in prison and then in exile for a decade after his ouster, returned to power in 2013 and put Musharraf on trial for treason related to the state of emergency that he imposed in 2007 while in power. However, a death sentence against the former military ruler, handed down in absentia, was later overturned.
“The court would view the matter of Pervez Musharraf after his return as he was a convict person,” the minister said.
Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan as a "chief executive" when the 9/11 attacks on the United States took place, swiftly aligned with Washington during its military intervention in neighboring Afghanistan.
In more than seven years in office, he oversaw a stint of economic growth while dodging at least three assassination attempts. He won a five-year term as president in a 2002 referendum, but reneged on promises to quit as army chief until late 2007.
After the December 2007 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the national mood soured even more and crushing losses suffered by Musharraf's allies in 2008 elections left him isolated.
In August 2008, Musharraf quit office to avoid impeachment charges, nearly nine years after taking power.