Musharraf barred from contesting in election
PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was on
Tuesday barred from running for parliament, officials said, just a day
after he unveiled his party manifesto for historic elections next month.
It was the latest humiliating blow to the retired General who
returned home last month after four years of self-imposed exile
promising to “save” the nuclear-armed country from economic malaise and
rampant insecurity.
The 69-year-old, who faces Taliban death threats, applied to run for
parliament in four seats but was rejected immediately from all but the
northern district of Chitral. Lawyers appealed against his approval in
Chitral, part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and a court official in
provincial capital Peshawar, said Musharraf’s nomination had been thrown
out on the grounds that he violated the constitution by imposing
emergency rule in 2007. “His paper has been rejected by the high court.
We will file an appeal in the Supreme Court,” Musharraf’s lawyer Ahmed
Raza Kasuri told AFP.
The Supreme Court is hearing a separate petition from lawyers
demanding that Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999-2008, face trial
for treason.
He also faces court proceedings over the killing of former prime
minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007, a rebel from the region of Baluchistan
in 2006, and for sacking judges when he imposed emergency rule. Kasuri
said Tuesday’s decision was an insult to “an internationally known
person”.“The world will see what democracy we have,” he said.
AFP
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