Pakistan Court Adjourns Musharraf Travel Ban Application

Pakistani former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, facing a battery of criminal cases, must wait a fortnight to learn if he will be given permission to go abroad to visit his sick mother.

A court in Karachi on Wednesday adjourned a hearing on the retired general's application to have a travel ban lifted so he can see his elderly mother in Dubai.

Musharraf was indicted for treason last month over his imposition of emergency rule in 2007, in a case seen as a test of civilian authority in a country long dominated by the military.

He also faces several murder cases and his name has been added to the official "exit control list" of people barred from leaving Pakistan.

The 70-year-old flew to Karachi at the weekend to undergo medical tests.

A two-member bench of the Sindh High Court adjourned hearing Musharraf's application to be removed from the list until May 7, said an Agence France Presse reporter present in court.

The court granted the adjournment after attorney general Salman Aslam sought time to file his comments on the issue.

Musharraf is staying with his daughter in Karachi where he is to undergo some diagnostic tests at a navy-run hospital.

He has been having medical treatment since January, when he was rushed to hospital after suffering heart problems on his way to court for a hearing.

After his indictment for treason in March, Musharraf asked to be allowed to visit his mother, who is in her 90s, but was denied permission.

The ex-general, who seized power in 1999 and resigned in 2008, has pleaded "not guilty" to the treason charges.

Musharraf is also on bail in three other major cases linked to his time in power including 2007 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack and murder of Baluch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006.

Bugti, who was killed in a military operation, led an armed campaign to press for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from Baluchistan's natural resources.