ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif said there should be no obstacles to the return of former president retired Gen. Pervez Musharraf given his critical health condition.
The former military strongman is critically ill and has been hospitalised in Dubai since last month, his family said Friday. They asked for prayers for his health while denying local media reports back home that he is on a ventilator.
Musharraf has been living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2016, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on bail to seek medical treatment abroad.
A death sentence against him, handed down in absentia in 2020 in a treason case related to the state of emergency that Musharraf imposed in 2007 while in power, was later overturned.
Responding to the development through a tweet, Asif, while referring to the removal of the government of Nawaz Sharif in 1999, said events of the past should not in any way obstruct Musharraf’s homecoming.
“May he recover fast and spend his remaining life with dignity and in peace,” he said.
جنرل مشرف کی خراب صحت کے پیش نظر انکو وطن واپس آنے میں کوئی رکاوٹ نہیں ھونا چاہیے. ماضی کے واقعات کواس سلسلے میں مانع نہیں ھونے دینا چاہیے .اللہ انکو صحت دے اور وہ عمر کے اس حصہ میں وقار کیساتھ اپنا وقت گزار سکیں..
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) June 11, 2022
Over the years, the former president was said to be very ill and was unlikely to travel home. Friday’s statement from Musharraf’s family, posted on Twitter, followed newspaper reports in Pakistan and statements attributed to his friends saying he was gravely ill.
“He is not on the ventilator. Has been hospitalised for the last 3 weeks due to a complication of his ailment,” his family said, adding he has been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic metabolic disease in which abnormal proteins build up and damage organs such as the heart, kidney and liver.
Musharraf seized power in 1999 by ousting the elected government of then-prime minister Sharif.
Under his rule, Pakistan became a key ally of the United States in the war on terror following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in America. He approved NATO’s transport of military equipment to land-locked Afghanistan through Pakistan and for the US to use Pakistan’s air bases for logistic support.
In 2007, he imposed an emergency rule and placed several key judges under house arrest in Islamabad and elsewhere in Pakistan.
