The Judicial Magistrate court slapped terror charges against former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday.
The court has also ordered for the ex-military dictator to be placed under house arrest at his farm house in Islamabad. He was arrested on Friday morning from his farmhouse after the High Court rejected his bail application in the judges' detention case.
Musharraf will be produced in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi in two days.
Giving into the arrest, Musharraf said that he respected the law. "I have come to Pakistan on my own accord. Ready to face the consequences," he told the Karachi-based news channel GEO News.
Supporting Musharraf's statement, his spokesperson Raza Bokhari said, "Musharraf has chosen to avoid a confrontation. His actions are voluntary. His lawyers will carve out the next course of action. Allegations in the lower court with respect to the judge detention case is a bailable offense. Hope that he will receive a bail."
Police said that they do not require Musharraf's physical custody saying he could be kept in judicial custody.
His lawyers have appealed to the court for judicial custody citing threats to his life. However, the lawyers representing other people, who had filed petition against Musharraf for imposing house arrest on 60 members of the superior judiciary and proclaiming emergency in 2007, demanded him to be placed in police custody. They also raised questions on why he was not handcuffed post his arrest.
On Thursday, Musharraf had fled the high court premises after judges ordered his arrest in connection with the dismissal of several senior judges in March 2007 during his reign.
Shielded by his commandos, Musharraf slipped away from the courtroom and was ushered into a black SUV. He was taken to his heavily guarded residence in Chak Shahza.
Musharraf did not face any resistance from police when left the courtroom.
His office has denied reports of him "fleeing". "Musharraf did not flee the court. Actually there was no police official to arrest him and nobody tried to arrest him," a spokesman said.
The 69-year-old former military chief had returned to Pakistan a month ago with the aim of contesting for the general elections scheduled to be held in May. However, he was barred from contesting in the elections on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in several legal cases during his tenure as President. Apart from the judges' dismissal case, he was accused of conspiring the murder of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and the death of Akbar Bugti during a 2006 military operation.
