RAWALPINDI, Nov 6: After remaining in detention for more than six months in his sprawling farmhouse which had been turned into a sub-jail, former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf is now a free man.

The order for his release was issued after his lawyers submitted two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each on Wednesday, two days after a court had granted him bail in the murder case of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi.

Soon after Additional District and Sessions Judge Wajid Ali issued the release order, reporters and cameramen reached the Chak Shehzad farmhouse hoping to get an opportunity to speak with the former military ruler.

Over a dozen workers of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), the party formed by Gen Musharraf, also gathered at the place, but were told by senior jail officials that he would be released after completion of the documentation process.

Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a member of Mr Musharraf’s team of lawyers, told reporters that he was not being allowed by police and jail officials to meet Mr Musharraf despite the issuance of release order. He warned that if he was not released on Thursday morning he would take the matter to court.

After receiving the release order, jail superintendent Malik Mushtaq Awan came to the farmhouse to formally inform Gen Musharraf that jail security was being removed and he would soon be freed.

Subsequently, the jail guards comprising 16 personnel headed by an additional superintendent and assisted by two deputy superintendents were removed and the status of farmhouse as sub-jail was de-notified. However, policemen, security agencies personnel and snipers will be there for security of the former president.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said at a press conference in Islamabad last month that Gen Musharraf’s name would remain on the exit control list till the court’s order.

Gen Musharraf, who ruled the country for nearly a decade after the military toppled the Nawaz Sharif government in 1999, was forced to step down in 2008. He went abroad and stayed outside the country for four years. He ended his self-exile and returned to the country to take part in the May 11 general elections, but was disqualified. He was detained in his house on March 19 after several cases were instituted against him.

He was granted bail in the judges’ detention case and cases of murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and veteran nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The federal capital territory police declared Gen Musharraf ‘innocent’ when their investigators could not find his involvement in the case of murder of Abdul Rasheed Ghazi.

The Islamabad High Court had on Sept 2 ordered registration of a criminal case against Gen Musharraf on a complaint of Rasheed Ghazi’s son that he had issued the order for the 2007 Lal Masjid operation in which his father and grandmother had been killed. Consequently, he was arrested on Oct 10.

Ahmad Raza Kasuri told reporters that the former army chief had no intention to go abroad. “Mr Musharraf will stay in the country and will face cases against him. However, he may go to Dubai to see his mother,” he added.

Answering a question, Mr Kasuri said a joint investigation team constituted to investigate the case in relation to Article 6 of the constitution could not start its work even after three months. “It proves that the JIT was politically motivated and it has no proof.”

Ali Nawab, senior vice-president of the APML’s youth wing, told Dawn that he and his colleagues would stay outside the farmhouse as long as they were not allowed to enter it. He said political activities would be expedited after the release of the party chief.