Pervez Musharraf Returns To Pakistan, Declares He's Running For President And Is Arrested For Crimes Committed Last Time He Was In Office

Well liked by the American popular media for his anti-Taliban militancy, Pervez Musharraf was a brutal military dictator who originally seized power in Pakistan in a 1999 military coup d'état. Since being forced to retire in 2008, he's been living in luxurious exile in London and Dubai until returning to Pakistan March 24 to run for president. There were arrest warrants pending when he returned including one for his involvement in the assasinations of Benazir Bhutto and Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti. Police arrested him and took him into custody Friday to face charges in regard to tampering with the judicial system. He had fled court on Thursday after a judge ordered his arrest on the spot.

Musharraf is accused of violating the constitution by placing judges under house arrest after he sacked the chief justice and imposed emergency rule.

Judges had signaled their intent to take a tough line with Musharraf on Friday when they ordered his case be heard in an anti-terrorism court on the grounds that detaining judges could be considered an attack on the state.

Police later transferred Musharraf into custody at a guest house at their headquarters in Islamabad after a senior officer failed to issue paperwork necessary for him to remain under detention at his home, his spokesman, Amjad, said.

Pakistan television broadcast footage of Musharraf leaving his farmhouse residence at an exclusive estate on the edge of Islamabad in a black SUV escorted by police vehicles.

The spectacle of a man who once embodied the army's control over Pakistan being forced to answer to judges was a potent symbol of the way power dynamics have shifted in Pakistan, which has been ruled by the military for more than half its history.

...While the sight of a former army commander being arrested is sure to rankle some in the military, who see the armed forces as the only reliable guarantor of Pakistan's stability, Musharraf's ill-starred return has bemused some former comrades.

"I don't think the army was in favor of him returning and tried to dissuade him," said General Hamid Khan, a former senior army commander. "But he decided to come, and now he has to face this. The army is staying out of it."

The army has been providing him with an elite unit of security personnel. The army is a state within a state and it will be interesting how far they allow this to go without interfering. As of this morning, after a night in real detention, Musharraf is back under house arrest-- for two weeks-- in the "sub-jail" known as his sprawling, luxurious estate. He'll be charged with high treason and appear before the court May 4.