RAWALPINDI, July 29 A lawyer calling himself former protocol officer of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday filed a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against former president Pervez Musharraf and others for her assassination.

Additional Sessions Judge Mian Khalil Naz asked the CPO to submit the reply till August 10 if his office had received an application filed by Chaudhry Mehmood Aslam seeking registration of a case against former president, former Intelligent Bureau (IB) chief Syed Ijaz Hssain, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Interior Minister Rehman A Malik, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan and others.

The court would decide on the next date of hearing whether the petition was maintainable. The petitioner making the CPO as respondent has prayed to the court to direct the police to register the case against the persons.

In his application to the police he alleged that both Mr Malik and Mr Awan left on December 27, 2007 in a car reserved for Ms Bhutto in emergency before the former PM had left Liaquat Bagh showing their mala fide in not protecting the PPP chairperson.

He also alleged that the policemen responsible for the security of Ms Bhutto changed the route of her return making it feasible for the attackers to target her.

UC nazim released

Meanwhile, Civil Judge Zulfiqar Gondal absolved a union council nazim of the charges of helping an alleged rapist after the nazim narrated before the court that police was the only complainant in the case and the father of the girl had stated that no incident of rape had occurred.

UC Adiala Naz Kamran Viki along with his supporters blamed Opposition Leader in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for implicating him in the false case to politically victimise him.