An awaited homecoming?: Musharraf asks court for protective bail

If granted bail, he would have appear before the court without being arrested first.

Former president Pervez Musharraf applied for interim bail before the Sindh High Court on Thursday.

The retired general, who has been in self-imposed exile for the past five years, is currently facing arrest warrants in the murder cases of two politicians, former premier Benazir Bhutto and Baloch tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti. Additionally, a commission investigating the Lal Masjid incident recently summoned him in person. He did not show up.

For the pre-arrest bail application, filed by his daughter Dr Ayla Raza, he retained the services of Barrister Salman Safdar and advocate Abdu Qadir Halepota, a member of the Law and Justice Commission.

Musharraf plans to contest the upcoming polls under the banner of his party, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML). Consequently, he will arrive in Karachi on March 24, along with ‘250 admirers and foreign journalists’, according to APML Islamabad President Dr Mohammad Amjad.

The party’s central information secretary Aasia Ishaque told The Express Tribune that the registrar had pointed out some missing documents from the bail application, but they would be submitted Friday morning.

Supreme Court Bar Association Vice President Abdullah Khan Kakar is set to file a petition in the Balochistan High Court, within a week, for protective bail in the Akbar Bugti murder case. Similarly, a team, under the supervision of senior party member Ahmad Raza Kasuri, will also file an application for interim bail before the Lahore High Court, in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.