TIL Desk/World/Islamabad/ Former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf was not only issued a new passport two months before the expiry of his travel document but it was again a diplomatic passport that he was entitled to being a former head of state, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed on Monday.
‘The former military ruler has been declared absconder by courts in several cases including high treason case, judges’ detention case and Benazir Bhutto assassination case. However, it is not clear if specific permission was given for a diplomatic passport and who gave it.
The interior minister claimed that the diplomatic passport of Gen Musharraf was renewed out of fear that he might use it as a pretext for not returning home to face the treason case. “He needs passport to travel back to Pakistan. He would have contended that without a passport he cannot travel and would have blamed the government for blocking his return,” Mr Iqbal said in response to a query about the renewal of the former military ruler’s passport.
