Musharraf enjoys life of luxury in detention

At the end of a quiet lane snaking through the well-heeled Islamabad suburb of Chak Shahzad, a terracotta-coloured house modelled on a Moroccan courtyard home stands amid spreading orchards and wheat fields.

It would be a restful, bucolic scene, were it not for the 300 policemen, paramilitaries, soldiers, snipers and anti-terrorist officers on hand to guard the owner, Pervez Musharraf, former leader of Pakistan.

The one-time military strongman is under house arrest but enjoying detention deluxe: writing his memoirs, working out each day and eating meals cooked by his personal chef.

The former general, who ruled from 1999 to 2008 after deposing an elected government in a bloodless coup, returned to Pakistan in March after years of self-imposed exile in London.

He returned vowing to stand in the general election and "save" Pakistan, but his arrival restarted a barrage of legal cases related to his time in power, including murder charges over the death of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

The Chak Shahzad house was declared a "sub-jail" by a court in April, and he has lived there in detention ever since, as the cases against him grind through Pakistan's slow-moving judicial system.