Warrant for Musharraf over Bhutto murder

Hrishita Deo
Kalimati, Kathmandu
03:11pm; 13th Feb, 2011

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today issued an arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf over the assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a public prosecutor said.

Musharraf, who was president when Bhutto was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack, is in self-imposed exile in London. He will not go to Pakistan for any court hearing, his spokesman said.

Musharraf is suspected to have been part of a “broad conspiracy” to have his political rival killed before elections.

“Judge Rana Nisar Ahmad has issued non-bailable warrant for Musharraf and directed him to appear before court on February 19,” special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said, adding that a joint investigation report had said “Musharraf was involved in the case and was equally responsible”. The report said it was a broad conspiracy involving Musharraf, two police officials and terrorists,according to Ali.

When asked what would happen if Musharraf did not appear in court, Ali said: “We will see when the time comes.”

But Musharraf’s spokesman in London said the former president would not abide by with the warrant. “No, he won’t go for this hearing,” Fawad Chaudhry said, adding that the warrant was “totally ridiculous”. He ridiculed Pakistani accusations that Musharraf failed to provide adequate security for Bhutto. He, however said Musharraf planned to go back to Pakistan to contest elections.

In December, police arrested two senior police officers, Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad, for assumed disregard of duty over the assassination of Bhutto. Aziz, who was city police chief at the time of the killing; and Shahzad, another senior policeman in Rawalpindi, had been arrested for their “failure” to protect Bhutto.

In April, a UN panel accused the government of failing to provide Bhutto with adequate protection and said investigations were hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials.

At the time of Bhutto’s death, Musharraf’s government blamed the assassination on Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

Secretary General of Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League party Muhammad Ali Saif accused the government of not following legal procedures. “I call it unilateral, as the arrest warrant was issued without hearing Pervez Musharraf,” Saif said. He added: “No list of questions had been sent to Musharraf, The government is trying to deflect public opinion from its own incompetency and failure by wrongly implicating Musharraf in the case.