A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf over the assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, a public prosecutor said.
Musharraf, who was president when Bhutto was killed in December 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack, is in self-imposed exile in London. He will not be going back to Pakistan for any court hearing, his spokesman said.
The former president and military ruler is alleged to have been part of a "broad conspiracy" to have his political rival killed before elections, though the exact nature of the charges against him was not immediately clear.
"Judge Rana Nisar Ahmad has issued non-bailable warrant for former President Pervez Musharraf and directed him to appear before the court on February 19," special prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told AFP.
But Musharraf's spokesman in London told AFP that the former president would not comply with the warrant. "No, he won't be going back for this hearing," Fawad Chaudhry said, adding that the warrant was "totally ridiculous".
He insisted that Musharraf still planned to go back to Pakistan eventually to contest elections, adding: "His return to Pakistan will be a political decision."
Bhutto was killed after addressing an election campaign rally in the garrison city, near the capital Islamabad, on December 27, 2007. Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister, returned from exile two months before she was assassinated to stand for election. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, led her Pakistan People's Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now president.
(AFP)