Musharraf`s illness revives hopes for truck drivers

Islamabad: Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf`s sudden hospitalisation has revived hopes of two dozen truck drivers whose containers were seized to secure the venue of his treason trial.

On December 22, police seized their containers which were used to secure the National Library Auditorium, where the trial of 70-year-old Musharraf was to take place yesterday. On his way to a special court to face high treason charges, the former dictator suffered a "severe heart attack". Abdul Baqi, a Peshawar-based truck driver, told Dawn daily that he had been living in his truck outside the library after police seized his container. "I have to deliver some other orders but cannot do so now. Normally, we charge Rs 8,000 per day as rent for the container, but police have not paid us anything," he claimed. Baqi said Musharraf`s ailment could delay the trial and hoped that police would then let him take his container. In Pakistan, shipping containers, or trucks carrying them are often used to secure roads or block them during protests.