ISLAMABAD — Police say they have arrested former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in power.
Police officer Mohammed Khalid said Friday that authorities arrested Musharraf overnight at his home on the outskirts of Islamabad. He fled there from court Thursday after an Islamabad High Court judge rejected his bail and ordered his arrest.
Khalid said Musharraf was presented before a judge at Islamabad District Court on Friday who will decide whether he will be taken to jail or held under house arrest.
Local TV footage showed Musharraf entering the court in Islamabad amid high security.
Musharraf’s lawyer Malik Qamar Afzal says the judge asked police to keep Musharraf in their custody.
Earlier, Musharraf and his security detail pushed through a large crowd outside the Islamabad High Court after the hearing, then sped away in a convoy of SUVs as lawyers chased behind, shouting insults.
The scene of Musharraf’s running before the law was the latest twist in his quixotic bid to return to Pakistani politics, which has been dogged by a series of mishaps and humiliations.
It could also presage a wider clash. Never before has a retired army chief faced imprisonment in Pakistan, and analysts said the move against Musharraf could open a new rift between the courts and the military.
After fleeing Thursday, Musharraf drove to his luxury villa on the outskirts of the capital, which is protected by high walls, armed guard posts and a contingent of retired and serving soldiers, officials said.
At Thursday’s hearing, the High Court judge, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, refused to extend Musharraf’s bail in a case focusing on his controversial decision to fire and imprison the country’s top judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.
Resentment toward the former army chief and president runs deep in the judiciary, which was at the center of the protest movement that led to his ouster in 2008. On Thursday evening, the court demanded to know why the police had failed to arrest Musharraf as he left the court, Pakistani television stations reported.
A spokesman for Musharraf’s party described the court order as “seemingly motivated by personal vendettas” and hinted at the possibility of a looming clash with the military, warning that it could “result in unnecessary tension among the various pillars of state and possibly destabilize the country.”
