Pak court to decide on Musharraf's plea to leave country Nov18

Karachi, Nov 13: A

court will decide on November 18 whether former president

will be allowed to visit his ailing mother in Dubai, revoking a government ban on him travelling abroad.

Musharraf's legal team yesterday filed a petition in Sindh High Court pleading to strike off his name from the Interior Ministry's Exit Control List (ECL) which restrains him from leaving the country without permission of trial courts.

His chief lawyer Raza Kasuri said that the ex-military ruler wanted to visit Dubai to meet his his 95-year-old mother, who is seriously ill and unable to travel. After being held for over six months at his sprawling farmhouse in Islamabad, 70-year-old Musharraf was released from house arrest last week when he got bail in a case related to the killing of cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi during a military operation against the radical Lal Masjid in 2007.

However, he remains under guard at the farmhouse because of Taliban threats to his life. Musharraf has also been granted bail in three other cases over the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation and the imposition of emergency in 2007.

He was arrested soon after he returned to Pakistan in March after years of self-exile to contest the general election. A court subsequently barred him from contesting polls for life. Kasuri said the legal team was confident that Musharraf's appeal regarding the ECL would be accepted when next hearing is held on November 18.

Musharraf's legal counsel A Q Halepota, who filed the petition in the court, told reporters that placing the name of the former army general on the ECL was a violation of his fundamental rights.

He said Musharraf would definitely come back to Pakistan if he gets permission to go to Dubai or any other country.

PTI