Musharraf acquitted in rebel leader Bugti’s killing
EX-MILITARY RULER ALSO FACING TRIAL OVER BHUTTO ASSASSINATION, EMERGENCY RULE
APakistani court yesterday acquitted former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the 2006 killing of a Baloch rebel leader, one of three legal cases he faced after returning from exile, lawyers said.
The decision yesterday was the first significant ruling in the cases, which include the murder of former leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and treason, since Musharraf was indicted in 2015 for the killing of nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.
A spokesman for Musharraf said he was happy with the ruling, which “will restore the people’s confidence in the judiciary”. The former ruler also hopes to be acquitted in the other cases, which the spokesman said Musharraf described as “false and politically motivated”.
Bugti was killed in a military operation in 2006, sparking deadly nationwide protests and inflaming a separatist insurgency in resource-rich but impoverished Balochistan province.
“The court has dismissed all the charges against former ruler Pervez Musharraf and all those named in the case,” Aftab Sherpao, a former interior minister also named in the case, told media in Quetta.
The anti-terror court’s ruling was confirmed by lawyers on both sides.
“It’s an injustice and a joke,” Suhail Rajput, lawyer for the Bugti family, told vowed to appeal.
Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, he resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in the Gulf.
Barrage of cases
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He returned to Pakistan in 2013 on an ill-fated mission to run in the general election, but was barred from taking part and has since faced a barrage of legal cases. They include treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007, and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack that same year.
Pakistani analyst Imtiaz Alam said the Bugti investigation and prosecution had been “poor”.
“The administration was under pressure not to find any hard evidence against the powerful players,” he said, without specifying who was applying the pressure.
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persuade Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest province and the richest in mineral resources. He was killed in a battle between tribal militants and government forces in 2006. Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered the killing. Musharraf ordered a military crackdown in Balochistan in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the province. Musharraf has also been charged in connection with the 2007 assassination of prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the murder of a prominent cleric since returning to Pakistan from exile in 2013. Musharraf was granted bail in the Bhutto assassination and treason cases. militants to lay down their arms in Balochistan has seen the insurgency begin to slow in recent months, and security analyst Talat Masood said there would not be significant fall-out from the decision.