Pakistani court orders confiscation of Musharraf’s property

A Pakistani court trying the country’s former President Pervez Musharraf who is currently abroad for high treason ordered authorities Tuesday to confiscate his property and freeze his bank accounts over his repeated absence from trial proceedings.

The court also adjourned the hearing till the former military chief is arrested or turns himself in to authorities, two months after he was declared a fugitive from justice post his March departure from the country for medical treatment, judicial sources told Pakistani daily Dawn.

“According to law, the accused cannot be tried in absentia,” said Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel.

One of the judges on the threemember bench trying Musharraf, Miankhel, said the court has been forced to order property confiscation and freezing of his accounts owing to his repeated nonappearance.

After the Supreme Court lifted the travel ban imposed on Musharraf by the administration three years ago, Musharraf left the country on March 18 to receive treatment in Dubai, promising to return within a few months.

The main case against the exmilitary man, who exercised power for nearly a decade following the 1999 coup, was opened at the behest of the government, which charged him with suspension of constitutional order and ordering the detention of dozens of judges in a 2007 showdown with the judiciary.

Musharraf, Pakistan’s sole military dictator to have faced arrest, had returned to the country in an attempt to revive his political career in general elections three years ago, but was prevented from doing so by the justice system.