Musharraf gets bail in Akbar Bugti murder case
The Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted bail plea of former President Pervez Musharraf in Akbar Bugti murder case.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk granted bail to Gen Musharraf in return for two surety bonds of Rs1 million each to be submitted to the SC registrar.
The killing of the Bugti tribe chief was the last case under which the former military ruler was detained in his Islamabad farmhouse which had been declared a sub-jail.
On May 24, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi granted him bail in the murder case of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and on June 11 the Islamabad High Court ordered his release in a case relating to detention of superior court judges during the Nov 2007 emergency.
“He (Gen Musharraf) can move around freely and even leave for Dubai or London where he commands great respect because his name is not on the exit control list (ECL),” said Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri who had represented Gen Musharraf in the Supreme Court against petitions seeking initiation of treason case against him. But he hastened to add that the political base of Gen Musharraf would be Islamabad.
He told Dawn that Mr Musharraf’s name had been put in the ECL on the Supreme Court’s order, but after the July 3 verdict of closing the treason case the order had lost its legal value.
“When both Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Zardari facing allegations of corruption in a number of cases can go abroad and return, why not Mr Musharraf,” he asked.
Mr Kasuri said the sub-jail status of Mr Musharraf’s Chak Shahzad residence would automatically revert to an ordinary private house after the grant of bail and the Adiyala jail staff would leave the house unless assigned for security reasons.
Advocate Qamar Afzal, who had also represented Gen Musharraf in the Supreme Court, said that after the bail the house would no more be a sub-jail.
An FIR was registered under sections 302 and 304 of the Pakistan Penal Code against Gen Musharraf and others in 2009 for their alleged involvement in the Aug 25, 2006, murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Additional Prosecutor of Balochistan Tahir Khattak insisted that the former military ruler was involved in the conspiracy to kill Akbar Bugti.
