Mush won't respond to questions on Bhutto murder

Pervez Musharraf will not respond to any questionnaire sent to him by Pakistani authorities regarding security lapses linked to former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination, a close aide of the former Pakistan President has said.

Chaudhry Fawad, who is also Musharraf's legal adviser, told the media that the former President will simply decline to receive the questionnaire. Officials of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, which is probing the gun-and-bomb attack that killed Bhutto on December 2007, have said that they have framed a 32-point questionnaire that they intend to send to Musharraf, currently living in self-exile in Britain.

"General Pervez Musharraf will not respond to the questions sent by the FIA and rather he will decline to receive the questionnaire," said Fawad, who functions as a spokesperson for Musharraf's new political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League.

He also said the former President enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution under Article 248 of the Constitution and is legally not bound to answer any question. He said the government talks about immunity when it comes to corruption cases instituted against incumbent President Asif Ali Zardari before his election to the office but wants Musharraf to answer questions sent by the FIA. This, Fawad claimed, was "simply ridiculous".

Musharraf was head of the state and "not directly linked to the security of personalities," the spokesperson said. "In legal terms, the security of Benazir Bhutto was the responsibility of the federal government of the time, which was not headed by Musharraf. The interior minister of the time was responsible for security matters."

Noting that incumbent Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik was security adviser to Bhutto, Fawad asked whether Malik too had been sent any questionnaire by the FIA. He argued that people who were the closest to Bhutto at the time of her assassination and those who were concerned with her security should be questioned first.

Musharraf has not been formally charged for or linked in any way to perceived security lapses that might have resulted in Bhutto's killing, he concluded.