Islamabad: Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's heroics in returning to his country could prove to be another misadventure for him, a Pakistani daily said on Thursday.
Not only half a dozen court cases await Musharraf in Pakistan but all political parties in the Senate have agreed that the former Army chief and president should be arrested on arrival and tried for treason, said a report in Dawn News.
In two cases, courts have proclaimed him a "proclaimed offender".
There are cases against Musharraf pending in the Supreme Court, in three provinces as well as in the federal capital.
Charges against him range from being involved in the killings of Baloch tribal leader Akbar Bugti and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to detaining judges of several courts as well as abducting a nuclear scientist.
Lawyer Masroor Shah said the allegations against Musharraf were of serious nature and if convicted, he could be sentenced to death or imprisoned for life.
Bugti was widely perceived to be creating a wave of terrorism in Balochistan in 2004. He went into hiding in 2005 and was killed in August 2006 in a cave in Kohlu, about 240 km from Quetta.
The Balochistan High Court in November last year issued arrest warrants for Musharraf in the Bugti murder case.
In the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi has declared Musharraf a "proclaimed offender" when he did not appear for a hearing.
Musharraf was also declared a proclaimed offender by a court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the alleged abduction of scientist Attiqur Rehman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 2004.
Another petition is pending in the Supreme Court seeking action against Musharraf for violating the Constitution, using national resources illegally, damaging the federation and spoiling the state's reputation.
Musharraf's counsel Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the cases against the former president were baseless and politically motivated.
He said Musharraf was not responsible for Bugti's death because the military operation was started at the request of the provincial government.
In the Bhutto case, Musharraf has been accused of not providing adequate security to the former prime minister.
Fawad said Musharraf could not be held responsible for security lapse. If he, being head of state, was held responsible for the killing, then President Asif Ali Zardari was also responsible for the killing of Punjab governor Salman Taseer and Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti.
IANS
First Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 11:53