Pakistani Court summons Musharraf in case of treason

The Associated Press, Islamabad | World | Mon, April 08 2013, 7: 29 PM

Pakistan the highest court on Monday ordered former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf appears before judges to answer allegations that he committed treason to power and said the former president may not leave the country.

The Supreme Court was responding to private petitions alleging that Musharraf committed several treasonous offences while in Office, including the overthrow of an elected Government, suspend the Constitution and dismiss senior judges, including the chief justice.

If convicted of treason, could Musharraf condemned to death. The hearing will take place on Tuesday.

"People want justice, the rule of law and the implementation of the Constitution," one of the petitioners, lawyer Chaudhry Akram, told two judges hearing the Supreme Court's supervision on Monday.

Musharraf in a military coup to power seized in 1999, but was forced to step down almost a decade later under the threat of impeachment by Pakistan's main political parties. He left the country in 2008 and spent over four years in exile before returning last month to run in the coming parliamentary elections.

Musharraf has experienced a bumpy return to his homeland. He was met by a few thousand people at the airport in the southern city of Karachi when his flight from Dubai, a sign of how little support, many analysts say he enjoys in Pakistan landed.

The Taliban have threatened to kill him, and he faces a number of legal charges that he has denied, including some on the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto related.

However, he a victory on Sunday when he was given approval to run for Parliament from a remote district in Northern Pakistan registered.