The posters exhibited messages in support of the former dictator, and were sponsored by a party called Move On Pakistan.
This is not the first time the group has made posters and propped them up on the roads of Pakistan. In July 2016, posters asking the then army chief, General (r) Raheel Sharif, to impose martial law and impose a government of technocrats emerged. The posters read, “Talk of leaving has become old, for God’s sake come now.”
After the posters propped up, the chairman of Move On Pakistan, Muhammad Kamran, was arrested in Islamabad under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 124-A (sedition), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Moreover, the Move On Party also intended to partake in the elections of 2018, but the Election Commission of Pakistan cancelled its enlistment as a political party.
Previously, when the posters had emerged, the army had distanced itself from the party, with the then director general of Inter-Services Public Relations Lt Gen Asim Bajwa saying that the army and other affiliated organisations had nothing to do with it.
This time however, the army had not made any statement regarding the banners in support of General Musharraf.
Following the verdict, DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor had said that it had been received with a “lot of pain and anguish by rank and file of Pakistan Armed Forces”, adding that Musharraf could never be a traitor.