RAWALPINDI The Lahore High Court issued on Friday notices for the third time to former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf and former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi, asking them to respond by the middle of next month to a petition filed by a lawyer seeking registration of a case against them for allegedly killing former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed of the court's Rawalpindi bench said the court would proceed ex-parte against Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Babar Awan, former director-general of Intelligence Bureau Ijaz Shah and former DCO Irfan Elahi after they did not respond to court notices despite having received them. The court said Additional Advocate-General Razzaq A. Mirza was asked to ensure that the notices had been served on officials of the Punjab government by the next date of hearing.

The fresh notices were also issued to former interior minister Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz, former spokesperson of the interior ministry, Javaid Iqbal Cheema, and SP Khurram Shahzad.

The court directed the City Police Officer to submit a fresh paragraph-wise reply to a petition filed by Chaudhry Mehmood Aslam through his lawyer Asad Rajput.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik was represented by Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, a former judge of the defunct Islamabad High Court.