RAWALPINDI - A three-member legal team of Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf called on him at VIP Ward of Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology where he is under treatment, sources revealed on Wednesday.
The meeting between the former military ruler and the lawyers – Sharif-ud-Din Pirzada, Anwar Mansoor and Ibrahim Satti – lasted more than one hour during which various legal matters pertaining to cases against him in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and Special Court came under discussion, the sources added. However, one of the lawyers, Ibrahim Satti, when contacted to know the details of the meeting, refused to share it with media people.
Separately, a delegation of MQM, led by Senator Tahir Mashhadhi and Mian Atique, also visited the AFIC, but security personnel refused to allow them to even enter the hospital to see the former president. The delegation members, including women and small children, were holding bouquets and portraits in their hands and chanting slogans in favour of the former military ruler. Talking to media persons at a camp set up by All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) workers on the other side of AFIC, Tahir Mushhadi said they went to the hospital, but the security forces and the hospital administration did not allow them to meet Musharraf. He added the delegation had brought some 1,500 bouquets for the patient, but the doctors and the administration stopped them from bringing these flowers inside. “So we will leave these bouquets outside the hospital,” he said. The MQM senator prayed for earlier recovery of Musharraf.
He said whenever any politician got sick, he or she flied to foreign countries for cure, so the government should allow Musharraf to go abroad for medical treatment. He held Musharraf had served the country successfully during his stay at the Presidency, so the people should pay great respect to their hero. He added the trial of Musharraf in the treason case was nothing except a political revenge. Tahir was of the view that Musharraf was not alone in imposing emergency on November 3, 2007, and had support of many other politicians and ministers, so all of them should be tried instead of targeting the ex-COAS alone. Dozens of APML workers, under the leadership of the party’s General Secretary Dr Muhammad Amjad, also gathered outside AFIC and bellowed slogans in favour of their chief.
The security around the AFIC remained on high alert with deployment of Rangers, Elite Force and the Punjab police. The patients and their attendants faced a lot of troubles in approaching doctors in the military heart hospital. Mall Road experienced a massive traffic jam the whole day, posing hardships for commuters and pedestrians.