Musharraf’s passport renewed ‘over fears he may not return’
Pakistan’s former dictator Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s diplomatic passport was renewed two months before its expiry as the government feared that he might not return to face a high treason case, interior minister Ahsan Iqbal has said.
Musharraf has been declared a “proclaimed offender” by courts, including in the high treason case and the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
A special court had recently ordered the government to arrest the Dubai-based former president and confiscate all his properties as it heard the high treason case against him for imposing emergency rule in the country in 2007.
The 74-year-old military dictator’s passport was to expire on March 16, but he sought an early renewal as international travel, in many cases, was not possible with a passport having less than six-month validity.
Musharraf was issued a new passport two months before the expiry of his travel document, and it was again a diplomatic passport for which he was entitled to being a former head of state, Iqbal was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper.
“He needs passport to travel back to Pakistan. He would have contended that without a passport he cannot travel and would have blamed the government for blocking his return,” Iqbal said.
Initially, the government was reluctant to renew his passport and also withheld his application for nearly two months.
However, it was finally renewed from Dubai on January 5 for the next five years, the Dawn report said. PTI
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