Benazir, Zardari made Musharraf doff uniform, leave Presidency, claims Bilawal

Says sitting govt let him flee

ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on Thursday said Benazir Bhutto compelled former military ruler Pervaiz Musharraf to doff his uniform and Asif Ali Zardari removed him from the Presidency, but the current rulers made him escape from the country.

“Musharraf was nominated in the murder of my mother Benazir Bhutto in which he never appeared before the court despite being summoned several times and the treason case against him was still in the court, which is yet be concluded,” he said in a statement.

Bilawal said Musharraf’s treason case was also under trial and it was being said that the trial was in its final phase. “Even in this case, Musharraf had been reluctant to appear before the court,” he added.He warned that if Musharraf was allowed to escape from the country, the pending cases will never go to logical conclusion nor will the legal requirements be fulfilled.

The PPP leader said the party never got justice from the judiciary and even former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was awarded sentence of hanging in a case which was not accepted by any court of law as a legal precedent. He said fake cases were registered against the PPP leaders and they were sent to prison and cases were decided after 18 years.

“The PPP leaders were kept in jails and never allowed to avail bails but the cases against dictator Musharraf were cleared in one day and he was allowed to escape from the country without appearing before any court of law,” he said.

Bilawal said the people of Pakistan rightly presume that the present government was allowing Musharraf to escape from the country under a deal. “The people of Pakistan also rightly presumed that the case against Musharraf under Article 6 was registered against him to give him a clean chit,” he said.

He said if Musharraf was allowed to escape the country despite serious cases, then the government did not have any right to govern the country.