RAWALPINDI, May 3 The Lahore High Court put off on Monday hearing of a petition seeking registration of a second FIR against former president Pervez Musharraf and others for their alleged involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Justice Asad Munir of the LHC's Rawalpindi bench adjourned till Wednesday the hearing on the petition filed Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam.

Advocate Khalid Ranjah sought the adjournment, saying he was busy on a case in the Supreme Court. He is representing former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Ilahi who is one of the respondents in the petition.

The court directed a standing counsel representing the federal government to ask the Islamabad SSP to make arrangements for security of the petitioner whose lawyer Mohammad Asad Rajpoot said he was being harassed and threatened for pursuing the case.

The court has already decided to proceed against Pervez Musharraf ex-parte because he did not respond to its notices seeking registration of a criminal case against him, Pervaiz Ilahi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Law Minister Babar Awan, former interior mister Hamid Nawaz, former spokesman for the interior ministry, former DCO and CPO of Rawalpindi and other officials for planning to kill Ms Bhutto.

Lawyers of all other respondents attended the hearing.

At the last hearing, Rawalpindi police had maintained that the second FIR in a case could be registered only on the complaint of blood relatives of the deceased. They said the petitioner calling himself an injured witness of the Dec 27, 2007, Liaquat Bagh tragedy had not joined the investigations into the case.