Musharraf not to appear in court tomorrow: Aide

Islamabad: Pakistan`s embattled former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, facing high treason charges, will not appear in the court tomorrow due to his illness, a close aide said on Sunday. A request will be submitted in the court, seeking exemption for Musharraf from personally appearing, his aide and advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri told Express News channel.

The 70-year-old former commando, who plotted the Kargil conflict and staged a bloodless coup in 1999, was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi on January 2 after complaining `heart problem` on his way to face treason charges at a special court. Musharraf is due to appear in court on January 6 and face treason charges for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. He is the first general to be put on trial for treason. If convicted, he could get life imprisonment or the death penalty. Musharraf`s wife yesterday filed a request before the government, asking his name to be removed from the Exit Control List that will enable him to travel abroad for treatment even as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made it clear that his fate will be decided by the Court. The reports of the medical tests of Musharraf have been sent to the experts for further examination in the UK. There is intense speculation that Musharraf is likely to be flown out of the country for treatment. His detractors say the military is supporting him though there has not been any public support by the armed forces. Musharraf, who was into self-imposed exile, had returned to Pakistan last year hoping to act as a third force in the last year`s May general elections. But he found himself entangled in a web of cases, including assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and killing of Baloch Nationalist leader Akbar Bugti, that made him stay at his farm house under house arrest for over six months. Just when he had managed to get bail in all cases, the government constituted a special court to try him for high treason.