Danger for Musharraf if proceedings commenced against him in Benazir murder case

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may get into trouble if prosecution proceedings are started against him for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, according to jurists.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has added Musharraf’s name to the list of accused in the Benazir assassination case, and the country’s Law Minister Babar Awan said earlier this week: “Musharraf is to face the court and the court will decide his fate.”

According to the jurists, although the FIA presented only the interim charge sheet of the case before the anti-terrorism court, it believed that Musharraf was involved in the assassination, Xinhua reports.

After failing to get any response from Musharraf, who was initially nominated as ‘accused’ in the FIR, the FIA presented the interim charge sheet on February 7 in the court declaring him an absconder, mentioning that he would be declared as “wanted” if he did not appear before the investigation team.

“The court, on the next hearing of the case on February 12, can declare Musharraf as ‘Wanted’ person in the case and then there would be a question whether to contact Interpol or not,” sources said.

FIA Public Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar told the court that Musharraf was directly advising two police officers Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad- responsible for Bhutto’s security- on the day of the incident.

“The phone records confirm contact between Musharraf and Aziz,” Zulfiqar said.

Musharraf’s two close aides during his era have agreed to become witnesses against him to prove that he was responsible for Bhutto’s murder, well-placed sources told the news agency.

According to the forensic report of Bhutto’s recently found blackberry phones, sources said, Musharraf sent a threatening email to her with the subject “BB (Benazir Bhutto) your arrival in Pakistan and security is due to your relations with me.”he prosecutor told the court that Bhutto had forwarded that threatening email to her Washington-based journalist friend Mark Seigel, stating that she was in danger.

On the other hand, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for Musharraf in Pakistan, dismissed the FIA report as politically motivated, and said that it was aimed at hiding the real causes of Bhutto’s murder.

Meanwhile, FIA sources revealed that Musharraf, through his one lawyer, contacted the agency on Thursday to show his will to record his statement. (ANI)