ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said President Gen Pervez Musharraf is responsible for not only the deaths of 80 civilians in Bajaur but also for the 42 soldiers killed in a suicide attack which was an apparent response to the earlier incident.

“I wonder at the irony of international justice system that on the one hand Saddam Hussain was sentenced to death by hanging - for allegedly being the judge, jury and executioner of 247 Iraqi Shias despite the fact that he had not pleaded guilty - while on the other President Musharraf is still enjoying power despite the fact that he has accepted the killing of 80 people in Bajaur out of whom 60 were below the age of 18,” he said.

“The PTI demands from the chief justice of Pakistan to take immediate notice of the extra-judicial killings in Bajaur, responsibility for which has been accepted by President Musharraf,” Mr Khan said while speaking at a press conference at his office in the Parliament Lodges here on Wednesday.

He said no one had the right to be the judge, jury and executioner.

“If the honourable chief justice does not take action now, then the people of this country are entitled to ask that what is the purpose of our judiciary? What has happened to the basic human right that every individual is innocent until proven guilty,” he stressed.

The PTI chief said the Bajaur incident would further radicalise the Pakistani society.

The shameful and cowardly act would drive more and more into the hands of extremists. Today’s suicide attack in Malakand was a direct consequence of Musharraf’s owning up to the Bajaur killings.

Between 35 to 50 Pakistani soldiers had needlessly been killed in this suicide attack, he said.