Pakistan's main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has asked the government to put former President Pervez Musharraf on trial for allegedly being responsible for the assassination of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq made the demand on behalf of the party, saying President Asif Ali Zardari had disclosed that an e-mail sent by Bhutto to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in October 2007 had stated that she would hold Musharraf responsible if anything happened to her. Farooq also quoted a statement by Sindh's Interior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza, who said in October last year that he held Musharraf responsible for Bhutto's murder.
Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack shortly after addressing an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in December 2007. Her husband Asif Ali Zardari was subsequently made chief of the PPP. Farooq demanded that the PPP-led government should immediately register a first information report against Musharraf for Bhutto's assassination and put him on the Exit Control List, which includes the names of persons barred from travelling abroad.
Farooq said the PML-N would consult its legal experts on the possibility of registering an FIR against Musharraf if the PPP did not act in the matter. He deplored the fact that the PPP had not registered a case against Musharraf despite being in office for over a year.
Farooq was of the view that the PPP leadership should have ordered an inquiry into Bhutto's killing through the Supreme Court instead of going to the United Nations. Farooq also told a news conference in Islambad on Tuesday that Musharraf was responsible for the law and order situation in Pakistan. The former President had sown the seeds of all the problems being faced by the country, he alleged. Musharraf came to power in 1999 after toppling the PML-N government led by former premier Nawaz Sharif. He stepped down in August last year to avoid impeachment by the PPP-led government.