KARACHI – Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who faces charges of treason and murder, arrived in Dubai Friday for what his lawyers said was urgent medical treatment after a three-year travel ban was lifted.

Lawyers for the former president, who is facing multiple charges including treason and murder over the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, have said he needs urgent medical treatment not available in Pakistan.

“I am going abroad for treatment but will return to face the cases against me,” a party spokesman in Karachi quoted him as saying.

“I am a commando. I love my motherland.”

The spokesman added that Musharraf had reached his Dubai residence, where he will stay for some weeks before seeking an appointment with doctors in the United States.

“Six to eight weeks are required for the treatment and then he would go back home,” said Dr Amjad Malik, a spokesman for Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League party in Dubai.

Musharraf was banned from leaving Pakistan in March 2013 after he returned to the country on an ill-fated mission to contest elections.

The former ruler was barred from taking part in the polls and instead faces a barrage of legal cases.

Last June, the Sindh High Court lifted Musharraf’s travel ban, but the federal government, headed by his long-time rival Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, appealed the verdict.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Sindh High Court decision and ordered the government to allow Musharraf to travel, which it did the following day.

Musharraf’s lawyers have provided guarantees he will return to Pakistan in six weeks and pledged he will appear in court for several ongoing cases against him, Pakistan’s interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said Thursday.

However, analyst Hasan Askari told AFP Friday the chance of Musharraf coming back was “minimal”, adding that his return could cause problems for the government and embarrass the military.

“In order to defuse the conflict, the government agreed to let him go,” he said.

In January, Musharraf was acquitted over the 2006 killing of a Baloch rebel leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

But four cases against him remain – one accusing him of treason for imposing emergency rule, as well as those alleging the unlawful dismissal of judges, the assassination of opposition leader Bhutto and a deadly raid on Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque.

Bhutto’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leader of her Pakistan People’s Party, vowed to launch country-wide protests against the government for allowing Musharraf to travel.

“After facilitating Musharraf’s escape this government has lost the moral authority to govern,” he tweeted Friday.

A large convoy of police and paramilitary rangers left Musharraf’s home in Karachi around 3.30 am Friday as a decoy to waiting media crowding his street, while the general travelled to the airport separately.

Musharraf ousted Sharif from power in 1999 in a bloodless coup and ruled Pakistan until democracy was restored in 2008.

He has been under house arrest in Karachi while the cases have ground through Pakistan’s notoriously slow legal system, lurching from adjournment to adjournment with little clear progress apart from the granting of bail.

Analysts had previously said they believe the government lacks the will to offend Pakistan’s powerful military by pushing for Musharraf’s prosecution.

HONG KONG – From Keith Haring and Basquiat to Banksy and Invader, Sotheby’s new exhibition of street art legends in Hong Kong, launched Friday, taps into a growing appetite among young Asian collectors.

Although auction houses have taken a knock as the China economy slows, the demand for street art in Asia has grown, with Hong Kong hosting an increasing number of exhibitions, sales and events.

Last year a mosaic of 1970s American cartoon character Hong Kong Phooey by French artist Invader set a world record for that artist at auction, fetching HK$2 million (S$350,000) at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong.

The popular piece of street art had been destroyed by the city’s authorities, infuriating residents, and was later re-made for sale.

Although that work went to a European collector, Sotheby’s Asia director Isaure de Viel Castel says a more adventurous young local market is driving interest in street art in the region.

“It’s younger collectors (interested in the work),” says Castel.

“People here are very adventurous. They’ve travelled a lot, they live abroad, especially the younger generation. They are craving new art, meeting artists, they absolutely love it.”

She added that the economic slowdown in China had so far not affected sales and that there was demand for street art across the region.

The new exhibition, entitled “They Would be Kings” is Sotheby’s first ever in Asia of street art.

It comes ahead of major art show Art Basel, which kicks off in Hong Kong next week, and sees exhibitors and collectors converge on the city.

All the works at the Sotheby’s show are available for private sale, but prices fetched will not be disclosed and there are no pre-sale estimates, unlike an auction.

Organisers say the exhibition is designed to introduce the works to an audience that may not be familiar with the broad range of street art on the market.

The headline piece is Haring’s large-scale abstract take on the classical image of ancient Rome’s founders Romulus and Remus suckling a she-wolf.

The show is curated by Steve Lazarides, a high-profile London-based art dealer known for his work with British street artist Banksy, whose work “Bomb Middle England” is one of those featured in the new exhibition.

“These artists forged their own path, they bludgeoned their way into the public consciousness,” said Lazarides.

“You can now find works by these pioneering artists in museums, advertising and on the walls of some of the world’s biggest collectors.”