Pervez Musharraf will not be extradited from UAE, says associate

DUBAI // A senior associate of Pervez Musharraf is confident the former Pakistan president will not be extradited from Dubai to his homeland.

Mohammed Ali Saif, the secretary general of the All Pakistan Muslim League, called an attempt to have an arrest warrant issued by Interpol "politically motivated" and a distraction by the government.

"This has been going on for some time now and, to be honest, there is nothing new to report," said Mr Saif. "This request to Interpol is simply the government trying to distract the media and people from the problems they are having in running the country."

Rehman Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, said on Monday that the government had written a letter to Interpol seeking a "red notice" for its 190 member countries to help to arrest Mr Musharraf over the death of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Mrs Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack during Mr Musharraf's rule in December 2007.

The country's top court yesterday issued a summons outside his farmhouse in Islamabad for him to appear on March 22 to respond to accusations that he failed to provide protection to her.

"If he fails to appear or respond then he can be tried in absentia," the government prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry said.

Mr Saif confirmed Mr Musharraf was staying at his Dubai home but would not say how long he planned to stay in the UAE.

"As part of international law, extraditions between countries can only happen if it is not politically motivated," he said. "Mr Musharraf could go to the courts of whichever country he is in and they would follow international law."

Mr Saif said it was nonsense to suggest Mr Musharraf had been involved in the death of Mrs Bhutto, weeks after she returned to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile after striking a power-share deal with him, and called the evidence against him "fabricated".

But he said Mr Musharraf did intend to return to Pakistan.

"We had planned for him to return in January but after discussing with senior party officials we decided it best that he did not," Mr Saif said. "He will return for elections when the date is announced.

"He will not return to appear in this baseless case. For the time being we are letting them try their luck with Interpol and get him handcuffed, if they can."

Interpol yesterday would not confirm or deny that a red notice had been requested.

"If and when Pakistan makes a request for the issuance of a red notice for the arrest of former president Pervez Musharraf in connection with the assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's request will be assessed in accordance with Interpol's rules and regulations," a spokesman said.

The murder of Mrs Bhutto, the first female prime minister of a Muslim country, was one of the most shocking events in Pakistan's turbulent political history.

Mr Musharraf's government blamed Taliban militants linked to Al Qaeda for the assassination, but Mrs Bhutto's aides accused him of failing to provide her with proper protection.

An anti-terrorism court last year issued an arrest warrant for him and declared him a fugitive after he failed to respond to accusations.

In August, the court ordered the confiscation of his property and froze his bank accounts.

In November, five Islamist militants were indicted by the anti-terrorism court for their involvement in the conspiracy to kill Mrs Bhutto, and two police officers for destroying key evidence by hosing down the crime scene.

Mr Musharraf has denied suggestions that he or his security agencies had any role in the murder.

But a report by a UN commission of inquiry released in 2010 said any credible investigation should not rule out the possibility that members of Pakistan's military and security establishment were involved, though it did not say who it believed was guilty.

The report criticised Pakistani authorities, saying they had "severely hampered" the investigation.