RAWALPINDI, Dec 10 The Lahore High Court decided on Thursday to proceed ex-parte against former president Pervez Musharraf on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against him and others for allegedly assassinating former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed of the court's Rawalpindi bench took the decision after a special messenger reported that a man at Pervez Musharraf's farmhouse in Islamabad had refused to receive the court notice which required a response to the petition filed by Chaudhry Mehmood Aslam, who claims he was a protocol officer of Ms Bhutto.

The court also decided to proceed ex-parte against former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi, former interior minister Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz and former spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Javaid Iqbal Cheema for not replying to court notices.

The court asked the Rawalpindi police chief to submit para-wise comments at the next hearing on Jan 20 explaining why an FIR had not been registered on the complaint of Mehmood Aslam.

Other respondents, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Interior Secretary Kamal Shah and some police officers were represented by their lawyers.

At the last hearing, the court had decided to proceed ex-parte against Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan, former director general of Intelligence Bureau Ijaz Shah and former district coordination officer Irfan Elahi after they did not respond to notices.

In his petition, Mr Aslam said he had approached the court of an additional district and sessions judge to get a criminal case registered against the former president, former Punjab chief minister and others, but his plea had been rejected on the grounds that he had never joined investigations and a second FIR could only be registered on the complaint of a blood relative of Ms Bhutto.

The petitioner alleged that Rehman Malik and Babar Awan and some former officials were involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Ms Bhutto. He said that Ms Bhutto had pointed finger at Pervez Musharraf and Pervaiz Ellahi.

Police officers on duty, he added, had allegedly helped the killers by changing the route and washing away the crime scene.

Mr Aslam claimed that some PPP leaders were also involved in the assassination because they had escaped from the scene after the tragedy on Dec 27, 2007.