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RAWALPINDI: A non-bailable arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf was issued for the third time in the Benazir Bhutto murder case on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
Sources said the warrant will be delivered to Musharraf's new address. The case's hearing was conducted in Adiyala jail by ATC judge Rana Mukhtar.
Musharraf, who was president when Benazir was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack, is in self-imposed exile in London and his spokesman has repeatedly said he will not be going back to Pakistan for any court hearing.
The former president and military ruler is alleged to have been part of a “broad conspiracy” to have his political rival killed before elections, though the exact nature of the charges against him is not clear.
Benazir Bhutto was killed after addressing an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, on December 27, 2007.
Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, led her Pakistan People’s Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now president.
In April, a UN panel accused the government of failing to provide Benazir Bhutto with adequate protection and said investigations were hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials who impeded “an unfettered search for the truth”.
Former military leader Musharraf has lived in London since he was replaced by the elected Zardari.
At the time of Benazir Bhutto’s death, Musharraf’s government blamed the assassination on Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.
Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009, one of the most high-profile casualties of the covert American campaign targeting al Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
