Musharraf's won't appear in court Monday: counsel

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's counsel Ahmad Raza Kasuri Sunday said that his client is ill and will not appear Monday in a special court for his high treason trial.

"It is known to the court and the entire world that Pervez Musharraf is ill, he is not a common man, the entire world knows him, he is ill and will not appear in the court tomorrow," Kasuri told Geo News here.

Kasuri added if Musharraf could not get the medical report Sunday, he would request the court verbally to grant him exemption from appearing in the court.

Efforts were afoot to obtain the doctors' report on his illness so that it could be presented in the court, he added.

On Wednesday, the court, hearing a high treason case against the former military ruler, warned that it could issue a warrant for his arrest if he again failed to appear before it Thursday, after Musharraf did not come for the second time in 10 days before the court.

But the former military chief was Thursday moved to a hospital ahead of his appearance in the court as he suffered a "heart problem". The option of shifting him abroad for treatment was under consideration.

Musharraf's name still figures on the list of those people who cannot go abroad without the government's permission. A court had already turned down his request to remove his name from the Exit Control List and advised him to approach the government.

The government initiated treason charges against the former president for suspending, subverting and abrogating the constitution, imposing an Emergency in the country in November 2007, and detaining judges of the superior courts. Legal experts say the charges carry death penalty or life imprisonment.