Islamabad, Jan 10 : Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf will be arrested and sent to jail as soon as he arrives in Pakistan as he has been declared a fugitives in cases related to the killing of Benazir Bhutto and Akbar Bugti, a provincial minister said today.
Mazoor Wassan, the Home Minister of southern Sindh province, said his department had received orders to arrest Musharraf last year.
Musharraf has been living in self-exile in Dubai and London since early 2009.
He announced yesterday that he intended to return to Karachi between January 27 and 30. Reacting to Musharraf's plans to return, Wasan said: “As soon as he lands at Karachi airport, he will be jailed. We have made all the arrangements at the chosen prison, which is Landhi Jail.”
Interacting with journalists at his home in Karachi, Wasan said, “No one is above the law...Everything will be dealt with according to the law.”
Wasan noted that Musharraf had been declared a “proclaimed offender” or fugitive in the cases related to the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti. “The courts have issued warrants for his arrest,” he said.
Last week, a top government prosecutor too said that Musharraf would be arrested on his return. Federal Investigation Agency prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said that an anti-terrorism court had declared Musharraf a fugitive for failing to cooperate with investigators probing the 2007 assassination of Bhutto.
In a related development, Interior Minister Rehman Malik today said the law of the land would take its course if Musharraf arrived in Pakistan.
“Officially I have no information about his arrival or in which city he will land, but one can contact his party people to know about the details,” Malik told reporters.
Malik ruled out any mediation by Saudi Arabia in connection with Musharraf's planned homecoming.“Saudi Arabia has requested nothing in this regard,” he said.
