Pakistani court acquits ex-President Musharraf in murder case
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has acquitted former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and two ex-ministers in the 2006 murder case of a Baloch separatist leader.
On Monday, the tribunal in the southwestern city of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan Province, dismissed all charges against the former Pakistani president and his aides.
Aftab Sherpao, a former interior minister also named in the case as an implicate, confirmed the acquittal.
“The court has dismissed all the charges against former ruler Pervez Musharraf and all those named in the case,” Sherpao told reporters in Quetta.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Musharraf has welcomed the verdict, saying the ruling “will restore the people’s confidence in the judiciary.” The former military ruler has also expressed hope to be acquitted in the other cases, which he has described as “false and politically-motivated.”
However, Suhail Rajput, lawyer for Akbar Bugti family, the killed Baloch leader, has vowed to challenge the decision in the high court, describing the acquittal as unjust and a “joke.”
Last January, Musharraf and two former ministers were indicted in the killing of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti. He was killed in a military operation in 2006, inflaming a separatist insurgency in impoverished Balochistan Province.
The case was one of the three legal proceedings Musharraf has faced since returning from self-exile in 2013. Two other cases include treason for declaring emergency rule in 2007 and charges linked to the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
The latest developments come as observers say the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lacks the will to offend Pakistan’s powerful military by pushing for Musharraf’s prosecution.
Sharif was also prime minister in 1999 when he was deposed in a bloodless coup by Musharraf.
Pakistani military has ruled Pakistan for more than half its existence since the country attained independence from Britain in 1947.
Musharraf is currently under house arrest. In 2013, he was barred from contesting national elections for the rest of his life.
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