Pakistan’s ex-military ruler charged in treason case

Pakistan’s former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has been charged in a treason case for suspending the country’s constitution and putting an emergency rule in place in 2007.

A court made the ruling on Monday, making Musharraf the country’s first army chief to face such a prosecution.

Musharraf, 70, pleaded “not guilty” to each of the five charges brought against him in the court.

“I am being called a traitor; I have been chief of army staff for nine years and I have served this army for 45 years. I have fought two wars and it is ‘treason?’” the former Pakistani president said in the court.

“I am not a traitor. For me, traitors are those who loot public money and empty the treasury,” he added.

Musharraf has said that he acted upon the advice he had received from then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz when he suspended the constitution.

“He (Musharraf) has taken the defense that he did not take these steps independently,” chief prosecutor Akram Sheikh said following the hearing.

The former army chief also faces other charges, including involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999. He was forced to step down and leave the country in 2008.

He returned to Pakistan in March 2013 to run for last year’s general elections. However, he was barred from running over charges dating back to his time in power.