Bhutto’s Murder Case: Musharraf Formally Accused of Conspiracy to Commit Murder

General Pervez Musharraf, who is under house arrest at his Chak Shahzad farmhouse residence, has been formally charged with conspiracy to murder Benazir Bhutto, who was brutally murdered in December 2007. He will be taken to the anti-terrorist court on Friday.

It has been a month of humiliation for the former ruler who was disqualified from contesting in the upcoming May 11 elections and arrested after returning from a self-imposed exile that lasted for four years.

While Musharraf was president, Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in a gun-and-suicide attack just outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on December, 2007. She was addressing a rally of supporters during her election camoaign before she was killed.

Despite a long running case, no one has been convicted for her assassination. Musharraf pointed an accusing finger at Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud as the one responsible (Mehsud denied the accusation vehemently, but was killed in a US drone assault in 2009).

Bhutto’s death could have been prevented if Musharraf’s government had given her adequate security. In February 2011, the ATC (Anti-Terrorism Court) indicted Musharraf, declared a proclaimed offender 6 months later, and had his property attached to the case due in his absence.