Close on the heels of being granted bail in four major criminal cases, former president Pervez Musharraf today petitioned a court to allow him to leave Pakistan to visit his ailing mother in Dubai.
The application asked the Sindh High Court to strike Musharraf's name from the Interior Ministry's Exit Control List. His lawyer A Q Halepota said Musharraf wants to go to Dubai to meet his 95-year-old mother, who is seriously ill and unable to travel.
Different courts have confirmed the 70-year-old Musharraf's bail in all cases against him and he wants to be with his mother after being freed, Halepota said.
Musharraf's inclusion in the Exit Control List is a violation of his fundamental rights, he added.
The application further asked the High Court to modify an earlier order restraining Musharraf from leaving Pakistan without permission from courts hearing cases against him.
A division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah issued notices to the Deputy Attorney General and Sindh's Advocate General and Prosecutor General, asking them to respond to the application at the next hearing on November 18.
In Islamabad, Musharraf's spokesperson Aasia Ishaque said he was exercising his constitutional right to travel out of Pakistan.
"He is exercising his constitutional right as he has received bail in all the cases. In his plea, it is mentioned that his mother is very ill and he would like to visit her," Ishaque told PTI.
