Former President Pervez Musharraf will be arrested on his arrival in Pakistan as a court conducting the trail of those charged with involvement in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto has declared him a fugitive, a prosecutor said on Saturday.
As troops fanned out in Pakistan's north-western province to counter activities of a pro-Taliban cleric, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said the main threat to the country's national security is "internal" with a handful of extremists out to disrupt law and order.
The political scene in Pakistan appears to be heating up, with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf party indicating that it is open to an alliance with former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The party's new vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said a decision on forming an alliance with Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League will be taken in due course of time after considering circumstances. His comments come in the wake of political ripples.
Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has described the relationship between Pakistan and the United States as "terrible".
They may be next month on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana.
Pakistan's former military dictator Pervez Musharraf's legal woes continued on Tuesday when an anti-terrorism court rejected his application for bail in a case over the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation. Judge Mohammad Ismaeel Baloch of the anti-terrorism court in Quetta on Monday heard the bail application filed by Musharraf's counsel Mohammad Ilyas and reserved his judgment.
Foreign secretaries of the two nations met in Istanbul. Pakistani hardliners have condemned it.
India on Monday said it was not surprised over former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's admission -- of use of United States' military aid against it during his tenure -- and asked countries providing such help to be 'extremely responsible'. "It doesn't come as a surprise. We have been arguing for some years now that the only problem we have with the US military aid to Pakistan is its misuse against us," Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said.
Kaur urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the matter with Musharraf as promised by him when she along with Sarabjit's two daughters met him on March 24 during his visit to Amritsar.
The two left the Firozeshah Kotla cricket ground after watching the start of the game and met at Hyderabad House.
District and Sessions Judge Akmal Raza issued the order in Islamabad after lawyer Aslam Ghuman filed an application in his court asking for a case to be registered against Musharraf, who is currently in Europe.
'I am,' Musharraf writes, 'still waiting for Manmohan Singh's outside the box solution.'
US President George W Bush plans to announce a "substantial discount" on the $5 billion deal to sell F-16s to Pakistan during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to Washington.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Monday said Pervez Musharraf will be tried for high treason for subverting the constitution twice, including when the former military ruler ousted him in a 1999 coup.
After being summoned by Pakistan's Supreme Court over his actions during the emergency, ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf may face more legal troubles, with a British Muslim politician announcing that he will move a London court against him for alleged 'war crimes'. Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, an arch-foe of the former President, has stepped up his campaign against him. The PoK-born Labour peer has announced that 'war crime charges' would be brought against Musharraf.
Pakistan's powerful army 'intends to stay neutral', on the Supreme Court's decision to ask former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to explain why he imposed emergency rule nearly two years ago and sacked over 60 judges, according to a media report on Thursday. A bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was among the 60 judges sacked by Musharraf, had on Wednesday issued a notice to the former president.The move sparked speculation in political circles.
"He maligned Pakistan, brought bad name and I have no sympathies with him. I admit that he gave Pakistan valuable technology for nuclear deterrence but he had no right to disgrace his country," he said.
Musharraf has said that the legality of the case will have to be looked into.
"I think the Pakistani President has not applied his mind as everything was hotch-potch and the road map was not clear when he was making the proposals," Azad said.
Upping the ante, former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto Tuesday asked Pervez Musharraf to quit as President saying the days of dictatorship in Pakistan were over. "We say Musharraf must leave. The time for dictatorship is over. It's time to bring a transfer to democracy," Bhutto told Britain's Sky News in a telephonic interview from Lahore, where police have placed her under house arrest to stop her from leading an anti-emergency rally to Islamabad.
Moments after former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi, President Pervez Musharraf appealed to the nation to maintain peace so as to defeat the nefarious designs of terrorists.
Musharraf said the matter needs to come to him after all proceedings and with all its legal implications.
The foreign ministers had met recently in Israel, sparking off protests in Pakistan.
Zubaida Jalal, a former minister in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's cabinet, was defeated in Monday's parliamentary polls, television channels reported.
Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has claimed that India's ambition is to weaken Pakistan so that the country can be dominated.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to ensure that Pervez Musharraf does not leave the country as it began hearing several petitions seeking the former military ruler's trial for treason for subverting the constitution and declaring emergency in 2007.
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of seeking to "create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan" as part of its bid to dominate South Asia. Musharraf made these comments at the Washington Ideas Forum. "In Afghanistan, there is some kind of a proxy conflict going on between Pakistan and India," the former military ruler said.
Musharraf's problems keep multiplying, and as elections approach, he finds himself fighting for his political survival. But generals do not let go of power easily. Their instinct is to cling on at all costs.
"We will be meeting Musharraf on April 16. This has been verbally communicated to us," Hurriyat Conference's founder-chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told PTI.
In a reply to an e-mail query sent by an Indian to his Presidential website, Musharraf said India and Pakistan could establish close ties if the Kashmir issue was resolved.
Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh have made it clear that the general will not talk anything else but cricket.
Pakistan's ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha held a secret meeting with former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in Dubai and advised him not to return to the country, according to a media report on Monday.
A team formed to investigate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the sacking and detention of judges during the 2007 emergency had said in a preliminary report that he cannot be tried under the anti-terrorism act, according to a media report on Wednesday.
Bhutto wanted prime ministers to have a third term. Musharraf rejected the condition.
The man Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is shaking hands with is Maulana Fazlur Rahman, one of Pakistan's hardline Opposition leaders, and one of those who often gives General Pervez Musharraf sleepless nights.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has assured the Hurriyat moderate faction that Islamabad was open to 'any solution' acceptable to the people of J&K on the Kashmir issue, its chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said.
