ISLAMABAD: The Interpol headquarters rejected Pakistan’s request to issue a red warrant against former president and army chief Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case, DawnNews reported on Wednesday.

The Interpol rejected the request on the grounds that Pakistani authorities and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had sent insufficient documentation for the purpose of issuing a red warrant.

According to a statement issued by the Interpol, it could not issue red warrant based on the  the evidences and documentation presented for the arrest of the former president.

Local authorities have again  sent a request to the Interpol director with documentation in addition to the investigation reports, copies of statements by then director-general of ISI’s counter-intelligence wing Javed Iqbal Cheema and the former director general of Intelligence Bureau, Ejaz Shah, US-based journalist Marc Siegel’s email to Benazir Bhutto and copies of the orders issued by the anti-terrorism court.

On the other hand the extradition request sent to the British government was also rejected earlier on the grounds that the two countries  have no formal extradition treaty between them.

Musharraf is an accused in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case and the Anti Terrorism Court had declared Musharraf an absconder and ordered to freeze his assets.

The arrest warrant was issued by the ATC in the light of FIA’s challan in the case of suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi in 2007 and due to Pervez Musharraf’s continued absence from attending court proceedings.

The FIA had sent the arrest warrant of Pervez Musharraf to Interpol along with evidences, especially revelations by a foreign journalist and a copy of the former president’s email sent to Bhutto, seeking the issuance of red warrants from the Director of Interpol, Pakistan.