Pakistani court issues arrest warrant against ex-president Musharraf

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistani on Friday issued an arrest warrant against former president Pervez Musharraf for ordering house arrest of judges of different courts in 2007, local media reported.

The court in Islamabad ordered the authorities to arrest and produce the former president before it on October 1, Xinhua reported.

Earlier, Musharraf had requested the court for an excuse from attendance due to illness. However, the court rejected the request, stating that the medical report of the former president was not attached along with the petition.

On November 3, 2007, the then president Musharraf had suspended the constitution and enforced provisional constitutional order and proclaimed a state of emergency in the country.

Musharraf also ordered house arrest of the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts in all four provinces of the country to prohibit them from reaching their courts as it was feared that the detained judges might have declared the president's emergency orders null and void.

Later in August 2009, after Musharraf had stepped down, a case was registered against him on the complaint of an advocate for detaining judges illegally.

The complainant had asked the police to initiate legal proceedings against Musharraf for detaining over 60 judges, including the then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Musharraf, who is living in his house in the country's port city of Karachi, has been facing a number of judicial proceedings against him for the orders he delivered when he was in power.