Musharraf unlikely to return: PPP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader Syed Khursheed Shah does not see the possibility of former president General (R) Pervez Musharraf’s returning to the country. “Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf would not return to Pakistan,” he said in his reaction to the court direction, in which the apex court had asked the former military ruler to appear in court on June 13 and assured him that he would not be arrested.

Commenting on the Kalabagh Dam issue, Shah said this matter could only be resolved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI). “The apex court should also allow settling this issue at the forum of the Council of Common Interest,” he said adding that the Federation will face serious challenges on the issue of kalabagh Dam.

Meanwhile, another senior PPP leader--former Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani--while commenting on permission to Pervez Musharraf to submit nomination papers for the upcoming general election, said that the rule of law shall evade Pakistan if, Musharraf, the dictator, is allowed to file his nomination papers in the forthcoming general elections.

“It is a matter of record that the Special Court, trying Musharaf for treason, on May 11, 2016, under Article 6 of the Constitution, 1973, declared him an absconder. Further, he fraudulently misled the court on the pretext of ill-health and has since then been absconding the country,” he said.

Mian Raza Rabbani said the Special Anti Terrorism Court, in which Musharraf is an accused in the Judges Detention case, has declared him an absconder on February 10, 2017. “In the murder trial of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the trial court declared Musharraf as an absconder on August 31, 2017,” he said.

The former Senate chairman said it is a matter of grave concern that a person who has been declared an absconder and whose warrants of arrest have been issued by various courts in the country has been allowed to file his nomination papers, conditionally.

It appears that those who abrogated or hold the Constitution in abeyance and are fugitive from justice are at a premium in Pakistan.