DHAKA: Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Sunday denounced treason charges against him as a ‘vendetta’, and said he had the backing of the country’s powerful army.

The 70-year-old told reporters the ‘whole army’ was upset with the treason allegations, in his first comments to international media since he was put under house arrest in April, according to The Straits Times.

The allegations relate to Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule in November 2007, and are the latest and potentially most serious in a flurry of criminal cases he has faced since returning to Pakistan in March.

The case puts the government on a possible collision course with the all-powerful army, which is reluctant to see its former chief suffer the indignity of being tried by a civilian court.

BDST: 1752 HRS, DEC 29, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor