Suburban detention for former Pakistan strongman

At the end of a quiet lane snaking through the well-heeled Islamabad suburb of Chak Shahzad, a terracotta-coloured house modelled on a Moroccan courtyard home stands amid spreading orchards and wheatfields.
It would be a restful, bucolic scene, were it not for the army of 300 policemen, paramilitaries, soldiers, snipers and anti-terrorist officers on hand to guard the owner -- the former leader of the world's only Islamic nuclear power, Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan's one-time military strongman is under house arrest, but enjoying detention de luxe: writing his memoirs, working out each day and eating meals cooked by his personal chef.

The former general, who ruled from 1999-2008 after deposing an elected government in a bloodless coup, returned to Pakistan after years of self-imposed exile in March.
He came vowing to stand in the general election and "save" Pakistan, but his arrival restarted a barrage of legal cases relating to his time in power, including murder charges over the death of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
The Chak Shahzad house was declared a "sub-jail" by a court in April, and he has lived there in detention since, as the cases against him grind through Pakistan's sclerotic judicial system.

As the man who allied his country with Washington in its "war on terror" after the 9/11 attacks, Musharraf is in danger from Islamist militants who have vowed to kill him.

So his prison and refuge is the house he commissioned back in 2006, at the height of his power, which was still under construction when he was forced from power and into exile.
"The house was 95 per cent finished before he left, but the first time he spent a night in the house was after he came back this year," said Hammad Husain, the architect.
Inside the villa, the walls tell the story of Musharraf's career -- photos that form a Who's Who of world leaders, the swords and guns one might expect of a military man, and a piece of fabric from the cloth of the Kaaba in Mecca, a holy relic given by the Saudi king.

Aides say Musharraf, 70, is keeping his body in shape with 75-minute workouts every morning and his mind sharp with reading and writing.
"He is writing a second book. I have seen the text. He has written substantially but there is still work to be done," his official spokesman Raza Bokhari said.
The new volume will follow on from his first book of memoirs published in 2006, "In the Line of Fire".