Musharraf allowed to run for parliament
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2013, Monday
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PAKISTAN'S former President Pervez Musharraf was given approval yesterday to run for parliament next month, a victory for him in what has otherwise been a bumpy return to the country after more than four years in self-imposed exile.
Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, was greeted last month by only a couple thousand people at the airport in the southern city of Karachi when his plane landed from Dubai. Days after his arrival, an angry lawyer threw a shoe at Musharraf inside a court building in Karachi as he made his way to a courtroom to face a series of legal charges against him, including ones related to the 2007 assassination of former President Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf has avoided arrest because he arranged bail before he arrived, which is allowed in Pakistan's legal system.
Today, the Supreme Court is set to hear a petition alleging Musharraf committed treason while in office by sacking the chief justice and suspending the constitution. He also faces death threats from the Pakistani Taliban, who hate the former leader because of his alliance with the United States to fight Islamic militants while in office.
Amid this political turbulence, Musharraf likely was relieved when election officials yesterday authorized him to run for parliament in a remote northern district of the country. An aide to the former military strongman, Rashid Qureshi, said officials in Chitral, near the Afghan border, accepted Musharraf's nomination papers.
Musharraf is popular in Chitral because he directed development money there while in office and oversaw the completion of an important tunnel that connects the remote, mountainous area to the rest of the country.
Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, was greeted last month by only a couple thousand people at the airport in the southern city of Karachi when his plane landed from Dubai. Days after his arrival, an angry lawyer threw a shoe at Musharraf inside a court building in Karachi as he made his way to a courtroom to face a series of legal charges against him, including ones related to the 2007 assassination of former President Benazir Bhutto. Musharraf has avoided arrest because he arranged bail before he arrived, which is allowed in Pakistan's legal system.
Today, the Supreme Court is set to hear a petition alleging Musharraf committed treason while in office by sacking the chief justice and suspending the constitution. He also faces death threats from the Pakistani Taliban, who hate the former leader because of his alliance with the United States to fight Islamic militants while in office.
Amid this political turbulence, Musharraf likely was relieved when election officials yesterday authorized him to run for parliament in a remote northern district of the country. An aide to the former military strongman, Rashid Qureshi, said officials in Chitral, near the Afghan border, accepted Musharraf's nomination papers.
Musharraf is popular in Chitral because he directed development money there while in office and oversaw the completion of an important tunnel that connects the remote, mountainous area to the rest of the country.
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