Musharraf's medical report 'fake', says Pakistan court

Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Friday rejected former army chief General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s request for temporary exemption from court appearances and termed his April 6 medical report “fake”. The ruling regarding the former military ruler’s certificate came during the hearing of the judges’ detention case, Dawn online reported. [caption id=“attachment_2485720” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Parvez Musharraf. Reuters[/caption] Musharraf’s lawyer Akhtar Shah submitted his medical report along with a request to grant his client temporary exemption from appearing in the court, but the judge rejected both and upheld his non-bailable arrest warrants. The judge maintained that Musharraf left the country in March but the report presented in the court was of April. Musharraf’s counsel argued that his client can appear before the court, provided his doctors allow him and the government provides him security. Musharraf has failed to appear in court for the last one and a half years. Islamabad police, in their report regarding the former army chief’s non-bailable arrest warrants, said the warrants could not be executed as Musharraf was in Dubai since March. The judge ordered Islamabad police to find Musharraf’s whereabouts and present him before the court on May 20, the next hearing of the case. Musharraf, who is facing a number of cases, including Abdul Rasheed Ghazi murder case, Benazir Bhutto murder case, and the high treason case, left for Dubai on March 18, hours after the interior ministry issued a notification to remove his name from the exit control list (ECL). In the formal hearing of the case, the judge had said the former president left country without taking the court’s permission. Police on August 11, 2009, registered a case against Musharraf on a complaint that soon after the imposition of an emergency in Pakistan on November 3, 2007, the then president detained 60 judges of the superior courts in their residences for over five months. On September 11, 2015, the ATC dismissed an application seeking a permanent exemption to Musharraf and issued his arrest warrants.