Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday declared Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf absconder due to his continuous disappearance in the judges’ detention case. The police submitted report with ATC regarding implementation of arrest warrants for the former president. Inspector Yaseen Bhutta informed the court that Musharraf had left the country due to which the warrants couldn’t be implemented. However, the counsel for the accused contradicted the statement and said that his client was abroad to get medical treatment. He said Musharraf couldn’t attend the proceeding due to security reasons and health problems. Prosecutor Aamir Nadeem requested the court to declare former president absconder due to his disappearance from the court proceedings in the case. Musharraf, who is facing a number of cases including the Abdul Rasheed Ghazi murder case, Benazir Bhutto murder case and high treason case, – left for Dubai on March 18, hours after the interior ministry issued a notification, to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL). He had already been declared an “absconder” in the Lal Masjid and high treason case and the court had seized his property due to his non-appearance. The judges’ detention case was registered by the Secretariat Police Station on August 11, 2009, on the complaint of Advocate Aslam Ghumman, who had sought legal proceedings against the former military ruler for confining 60 judges of the superior courts, for over five months at their homes and restraining them from administering justice.