In a major development, the Supreme Court has ordered the release of Rana Tanveer, the man who attacked former president and military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
According to the details, a three-member bench headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood heard the case where the petitioner’s lawyer Hashmat Habib said that his client has completed his sentence, however, he is still not being released.
“The term of life imprisonment is 14 years and my client has been in the prison for almost 20 years,” said Hashmat Habib.
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After hearing arguments from both sides, the Supreme court rejected the federal and Punjab governments’ pleas against Rana Tanveer’s release and ordered the jail authorities to set him free.
It is pertinent to mention here that the accused Rana Tanveer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005 by Supreme Court.
Attack on Pervez Musharraf
In December 2003, a powerful explosion targeted former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s motorcade as it was passing over a bridge in Rawalpindi. The motorcade escaped the explosion in a matter of seconds, however, and no one was injured.
The bomb exploded minutes after his convoy passed a bridge in Rawalpindi, resulting in a near escape from an attempted assassination. In his autobiography “In the Line of Fire,” he recounted how the explosion sent his car flying into the air.
The former President has survived multiple assassination attempts. A few days later after the Rawalpindi attack, two suicide bombers in two vehicles slammed into Pervez Musharraf’s convoy on the same road.
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The Supreme Court of Pakistan in September 2006 affirmed the death penalties given to 12 defendants who were found guilty of taking part in the two attempts on Musharraf’s life. Islam Siddiqui, who had been found guilty of taking part in one of the attempts, was executed.
In 2000, Kamran Atif, an alleged member of Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami, also tried to assassinate Musharraf. Atif was sentenced to death in 2006 by an Anti-Terrorism Court.