whom prosecutors accuse of involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, while he was still in power.
Musharraf, who lives in London, appeared unlikely to face imminent arrest or extradition. However, the court action and the prosecution case linking him to Islamic extremists arrested in the killing could prove a major setback to the retired general’s plans to return home and run for office.
Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesman for Musharraf reached in the city of Lahore, called the arrest order “politically motivated rubbish” and said the prosecution did not have “a single iota of evidence” against the former leader.
“It is strange behavior for an anti-terrorist court to issue a warrant for a former head of state who always fought terrorism,” Chaudhry said.
Prosecutors have alleged that Musharraf, who strongly opposed Bhutto’s return to Pakistan, took part in a complicated conspiracy to kill her that included ordering purposeful police negligence in her public security and colluding with Islamist insurgents who allegedly shot Bhutto at an outdoor political rally in the city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007.
Two senior police officials have been arrested in the case, as well as five alleged members of the Pakistani Taliban. A U.N. investigation into Bhutto’s death did not name Musharraf or anyone else as ordering the slaying, but it concluded that there was high-level interference by state security agencies in the police investigation afterward.
Prosecutor Zulfiqar Ali Chaudhry could not be reached for comment after Saturday’s closed-door hearing in the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. Pakistani TV news channels quoted him as telling the court that government police investigators declared Musharraf an “accused absconder” from justice because he had rejected numerous requests for cooperation in the Bhutto case.
At the time of the killing, Musharraf’s government blamed the Pakistani Taliban and its fugitive leader, Baitullah Mehsud, for planning and carrying out the crime. Mehsud was later killed in an airstrike by a U.S. drone plane, but a group of his followers was arrested in the case.
Some Pakistanis believe Musharraf was involved because Bhutto’s comeback represented his biggest political threat. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, is now president, and Musharraf has always claimed that Zardari’s government is waging a personal vendetta against him.
Musharraf’s spokesman said Saturday night that the former president was traveling in Dubai and planned to continue with a scheduled trip to the United States. He said Musharraf had no plans to return to Pakistan soon.
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