Pervez Musharraf declared absconder in Benazir Bhutto assassination case

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf was on Thursday declared absconder in Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

Islamabad: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday declared former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf as an absconder in Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

Former two-time premier Bhutto was killed in a gun and bombing attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007 when she came out of park after addressing an election rally.

However, Five militants from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group were allowed to walk free by ATC judge Asghar Ali Khan. The TTP members Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid were arrested soon after the assassination and since then have been in jail.

Former president and military ruler Musharraf is alleged to have been part of a broad conspiracy to have his political rival killed before elections. He has denied the allegation. Musharraf has been in self-imposed exile in Dubai ever since a travel ban was lifted three years later.

The court's verdict came after Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry in his concluding arguments had disowned prosecution evidence of audio record and transcript of telephonic conversation of the former chief of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with a cleric in which he had congratulated five terrorists on carrying out the successful attack on Bhutto.

Chaudhry termed it a "fake story" fabricated by former president retired General Pervez Musharraf to mislead the investigators.

He had claimed that Musharraf, through his aide former director general of the National Crisis Management Cell retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, had disseminated the fake evidence to save himself.

Musharraf was accused of conspiring to kill Bhutto because he perceived her a potential threat to his rule.