ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pervez Musharraf, the onetime Pakistani military ruler who said he was not afraid to face jail when he returned to his homeland last month, raced away from court with his security detail Thursday after a judge ordered his arrest in a treason case against him.

Local broadcast footage captured scenes of Musharraf taking flight in a black sport utility vehicle with a member of his detail perched on the bullet-resistant vehicle’s side. The dramatic turn represented yet another blow for the former president, who went into self-exile in 2008, facing impeachment for increasingly autocratic efforts to remain in power.

The Islamabad High Court revoked Musharraf ’s bail Thursday in a case focused on Musharraf’s suspension of the constitution and declaration of a state of emergency in November 2007, an ultimately futile effort to stanch rising opposition to his nine-year rule. He sacked judges, ordered political foes arrested and put the chief justice of the Supreme Court under house arrest.

In earlier rulings, the court said those actions amounted to treason and declared Musharraf an offender subject to arrest if he returned to Pakistan.

Musharraf, who returned March 24 to launch what many analysts called a hopeless and ill-advised bid to become prime minister, has met a tepid and sometimes hostile reception from voters. And his campaign hopes were torpedoed earlier this week when a top court in northwestern Pakistan barred him from running for the only parliamentary seat he stood a chance of winning.

Earlier, elections official disqualified him from seats in three other districts where he sought to run in the May 11 national elections.

After Musharraf’s bail was canceled Thursday by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court, the former general and his aides sped past uniformed police and paramilitary forces outside the court to his farmhouse in the Pakistani capital, where local TV stations reported roads were being blocked by police.

Later in the day, while Musharraf remained behind the gates of his fortified home, his attorneys shuttled between the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court to arrange bail. Aasia Ishaq, spokesman for his party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, said Musharraf would comply with any ruling.

The news footage showed the ex-ruler’s SUV exiting the court unimpeded by the army-controlled paramilitary Rangers. But scenes of a military presence at Musharraf’s home also gave rise to speculation that he was essentially under house arrest.

Ahmed Raza Kasuri,Musharraf ’s lawyer, said that was untrue and rejected suggestions that the former strongman fled from court.

“There were hundreds of Rangers in Musharraf’s security escort,” he said. “He went with them and came back with them. It was not an escape.”

Kasuri, talking to reporters outside the opulent compound on the capital’s outskirts, said the man inside was not worried about his fate.

“Musharraf is relaxed, confident and happy,” he said. “We were sipping coffee, and hewas smoking a cigar.”

The Islamabad High Court issued a judgment later Thursday calling Musharraf’s escape a separate crime. It summoned the top police official in Islamabad to explain how it happened.

The prospect of arrest was clear from the time Musharraf touched down in Karachi on a flight from Dubai, his home in exile. His lawyers had obtained pre-arrest bail in various pending cases against him, gambling that the courts would extend the bail before the elections.

But Musharraf said he didn’t care about going to jail or facing other risks, including the threat of assassination by the Pakistani Taliban, because he was determined to “save” Pakistan.

Before Musharraf returned, some analysts predicted a potentially destabilizing confrontation between Pakistan’s judiciary and the military if a court ordered his arrest. The question remains unsettled: Will the army that he served in for more than 40 years defend him against going to jail?

On Monday, during a news conference at the farmhouse, the media asked whether Musharraf was prepared to be jailed if he lost the cases against him. “If that is the decision,” Musharraf said, “I am not afraid, and I am ready to go.”

Ali Dayan Hasan, director of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, criticized the military for purportedly protecting Musharraf and said it should present him for arrest.

Information for this article was contributed by Shaiq Hussain of The Washington Post.

Front Section, Pages 8 on 04/19/2013