Pervez Musharraf.
"Just leave it to the Almighty now," a judge at Pakistan's Supreme Court remarked on Tuesday while disposing of a petition filed six years ago to place now-deceased military dictator Pervez Musharraf on the Exit Control List (ECL) to prevent him from leaving the country.
Musharraf, who died in February in Dubai at the age of 79, was allowed by the apex court in March 2016 to travel abroad for treatment while he was facing trial in a treason case.
A petition was filed by advocate Toufiq Asif to prevent Musharraf from leaving Pakistan. However, the Supreme Court took up the plea six months after the death of the wily former military ruler.
According to a report in The Express Tribune newspaper, during the hearing of the petition on Tuesday, a three-member bench headed by Justice Mazahar Akbar Naqvi inquired, "Isn't this plea redundant now?"
The petitioner, advocate Asif, quipped that if fixed for hearing earlier, "it would not have been redundant" and added that as predicted, Musharraf left the country and did not return.
"Just leave it to the Almighty now," remarked Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.
"Well yeah, it is up to the Almighty now," replied the petitioner.
The apex court disposed of the petition.
In December 2019, a special court found Musharraf guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death. However, the punishment was never carried out.
Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil War in 1999 who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, died after a prolonged illness at the American Hospital in Dubai on February 5 this year.
He was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body, according to his family.