Senior Sindh Minister for Food Nisar Khuhro on Saturday urged the judiciary to ensure former president Pervez Musharraf's arrest in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.

The PPP minister also asked the army to explain why it kept quiet when the former general left Pakistan.

“Just declaring Pervez Musharraf as an absconding accused by the courts is not sufficient. Steps like approaching Interpol should be taken to bring him to the dock," he demanded while addressing media in Hyderabad.

Musharraf recently directly accused PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari of being complicit in the murder of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, reasoning that Zardari had motive since he stood most to gain from it.

Turning the tables, Khuhro said that Musharraf was directly responsible for the murders of thousands of people who were killed in terrorism-related incidents.

He accused the former president of orchestrating the killings that took place in Karachi during the infamous May 12, 2007 rioting that shook the city, and then "arrogantly raising his fists in Islamabad to show his powers".

"He was also responsible for killing [Baloch separatist leader] Akbar Bugti besides the Oct 18, 2007 carnage [the attack on Benazir's Karsaz rally] in Karachi," Khuhro alleged.

"Musharraf now claims that Benazir Bhutto’s murder was a direct loss to him, but it was his government which didn’t provide adequate security to her on Oct 18, 2007 and then on Dec 27, 2007 in Liaquat Bagh [Rawalpindi]," Khuhro said.

The minister said it is ridiculous to say Bhuttos's route was changed before she was assassinated, as alleged by Musharraf, saying "her vehicle was just outside the public meeting [she had addressed in Liaquat Bagh on Dec 27, 2007], but without any security cordon."

“He [Musharraf] sheltered Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad on the one hand and on the other he sought $5 billion from the international community to fight the war on terror and when expenditures were accounted, $3bn remained unaccounted for," the minister said.

Turning his guns on the army, Khuhro then said the army should explain why it remained silent when Musharraf left Pakistan.

Addressing Musharraf's other serious accusation, that Zardari was also behind the murder of Benazir's brother, Mir Murtaza Bhutto, Khuhro added that aggrieved the party in the assassination could have sought a fresh trial and the reopening of the case.

Instead, the minister agreed with the PPP co-chairman’s statement that Murtaza Bhutto's murder was actually a conspiracy to overthrow Benazir's government at the time.

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