By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
A Pakistani high court has suspended an arrest warrant earlier issued against the country's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in a murder case.
The Islamabad High Court on Thursday accepted the plea from Musharraf's counsel that he could not appear in court because of illness.
Musharraf has repeatedly used the pretext of ill health to miss court hearings in this and three other cases facing him over the past five years, despite continuing to make regular appearances on TV and for public lectures.
An Islamabad city court last month issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former military ruler, for his alleged involvement in the murder of controversial cleric Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, who along with hundreds of his students was killed in a military operation ordered by Musharraf on Islamabad's Red Mosque in 2007.
Musharraf also faces treason charges for imposing a state of emergency and suspending the country's constitution in 2007, as well as murder cases for two-time premier Benazir Bhutto and veteran Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Musharraf took power in 1999, when he led a bloodless military coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but stepped down in 2008 amid increasing political pressure against him.
