Islamabad, February 19: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of suspects charged with involvement in former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination today reissued an arrest warrant for ex-President Pervez Musharraf to secure his presence during the proceedings of the case.
Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed Khan reissued the warrant after officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) informed the court that they had been unable to serve the warrant issued on February 12.
The judge also directed authorities to send copies of the warrant to Musharraf’s residences in Islamabad and London.
The court had issued the warrant after the FIA informed it that Musharraf, currently living in self-exile in Britain, should be declared an absconder for failing to cooperate in the investigation into the assassination.
The court had also directed Musharraf to appear before it today but the former military ruler’s aides have said there is no possibility of him returning to Pakistan to join the proceedings.
During today’s proceedings held at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, FIA officials presented a report in which they said the agency had not been able to implement the arrest warrant issued earlier.
The report said persons present at Musharraf’s farmhouse at Chak Shahzad in Islamabad had told authorities that he did not live there and was abroad.
After reissuing the warrant, the judge adjourned the matter till March 5.
Prosecutors had earlier told the court that further progress in investigating Bhutto’s assassination was not possible without Musharraf’s presence.
They said they had repeatedly tried to contact Musharraf but he had refused to cooperate.
The FIA had recently named Musharraf as an “absconder” for failing to cooperate with investigators.
The government has said it will provide any sort of cooperation that is requested by the court to serve the warrant.
The FIA’s charge-sheet has levelled 12 charges against Musharraf.
According to FIA officials, Musharraf had prior knowledge of Bhutto’s assassination being planned by slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud but withheld that information from security agencies.
On the basis of circumstantial evidence and statements, the FIA said, it appeared that Musharraf was “equally responsible with criminal mens rea (a legal term for knowledge or intention to commit a prohibited act) as his government had failed to provide the required security to Benazir Bhutto, twice elected prime minister.”
A UN Commission that probed Bhutto’s murder also held Musharraf responsible for failing to provide adequate security to her.
Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack shortly after she addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.
–PTI