Pakistan court allows Pervez Musharraf to go abroad

KARACHI: A Pakistani court today ordered authorities to remove the name of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf from the exit control list, paving the way for him to leave the country.

Sindh High Court two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Shahnawaz issued the ruling following the hearing of Musharraf's request for the removal of his name from the list.

Musharraf, 70, who is facing multiple trials including one under the high-treason act, had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court to remove his name from the Exit Control List (ECL) so that he can visit his ailing mother in the UAE.

The government apposed the petition saying he could abscond if allowed to travel abroad.

"It is true that now there is no legal hurdle in his (Musharraf) going out of the country," Aasia Ishaque of All Pakistan Muslim League told PTI.

"But he will not go out of the country immediately." She said there is always a period of 15-days after such verdicts by courts as the prosecution is given time to go into appeal to the Supreme Court.

Musharraf will wait for this period, she added. His name was put on the ECL on April 5 last year to ensure that he remains in the country and attends hearings of all the cases he has been named in.

Anyone whose name is on the ECL cannot leave the country without permission.

On March 31, Musharraf was indicted for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts.

The former president, who is the first military ruler in Pakistan's history to be tried in court, has rejected all the charges leveled against him.

He flew to Karachi last month to undergo medical tests. Musharraf, who returned to Pakistan from self-exile in March last year, was also named as an accused in the murder cases of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and former Baloch tribal leader Akbar Bugti in 2006.