Musharraf granted bail in Lal Masjid murder case

Former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has been reportedly granted bail by a court in Islamabad, in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi in a 2007 military raid, freeing him of the fourth and last pending case against him.

The judges ordered Musharraf to submit two bonds each worth 100,000 rupees as surety for bail, making him free to move within the country, however, he would still require government's approval to leave Pakistan.

According to Dawn, the ruling indicates that Musharraf is on bail in all the four cases against him including the one related to the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Defence lawyer Afshan Adil slammed the rumours about the former dictator willing to leave the country and said that Musharraf is not going abroad and will still in the country.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), Tariq Asad condemned the bail ruling and said that an appeal would be launched in the high court.

The report said that Musharraf was arrested on Oct 10, five weeks after Ghazi's son Haroon Rasheed registered the murder charge against him with Aabpara police in Rawalpindi and his arrest had come just a day after he was given bail in the last of three major cases against him dating back to his 1999-2008 rule.

The former ruler had returned to Pakistan from his self-imposed exile in March to run for the presidential candidates, but was barred from contesting due to the charges leveled against him.

Musharraf has been living in a house-arrest, declared a 'sub-jail' under the auspices of a prison in Rawalpindi and guarded by some 300 police, paramilitaries and marksmen due to Taliban's threat to assassinate the former leader, the report added.