Islamabad, Jan 2
Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was Thursday moved to a hospital ahead of his appearance at a special court where he is being tried for treason.
The former army strongman was taken to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi “after suddenly developing a medical complication while en route to the special court”, Dawn online reported.
The judges of the special court announced a break till 4 p.m. after being informed of the sudden development by DIG Security Jan Mohammad, adding that an order would be issued after the end of the break.
The court had Wednesday warned Musharraf to appear before it, failing which arrest warrants would be issued against him.
Earlier Thursday, the court had ordered that he should appear it before 11.30 a.m., according to the Dawn report.
Prior to that, the court also had to take a short recess after Musharraf's lawyer Anwar Mansoor staged a walk-out citing lack of sleep due to alleged disturbances outside the door of his residence Wednesday night.
This apart, Sharifuddin Pirzada, the head of Musharraf's defence team, alleged that chief prosecutor Akram Shaikh had hurled threats to him through Ibrahim Satti, another lawyer in the former president's defence team.
Musharraf had failed Wednesday for the second time in 10 days to appear before the three-member bench and the court adjourned the proceedings for a day, Xinhua reported.
The government had initiated treason charges against the former military president for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. Legal experts say the charges carry death penalty or life imprisonment.
The court had summoned Musharraf to formally frame charges of high treason against him, but his defence lawyers told the court that the former president could not appear because of threats to his life.
By:IANS