Akbar Bugti murder case: ‘All evidence against Musharraf lost’

By Qaiser Butt

Published: July 18, 2011

Bugti’s lawyer says govt commission will sabotage high court proceedings. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:  All documentary evidence against former president Pervez Musharraf in the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case has been lost, the lawyer pleading on behalf of Akbar Bugti’s eldest son, Jamil Bugti, has told The Express Tribune.

The federal cabinet, in a meeting in Quetta last Wednesday, decided to constitute a judicial commission under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge to probe the murder of Akbar Bugti. The commission, however, was promptly rejected by Jamil Bugti who said he had no expectations from the incumbent government.
Advocate Shakil Hadi told The Express Tribune that all evidence against the former military ruler and six others accused of murder is not traceable due to the negligence on part of the police and other relevant authorities of the provincial government.
Jamil Bugti, while rejecting the probe commission said the prime minister’s decision to investigate his father’s killing by a judicial commission was aimed at sabotaging Balochistan High Court’s proceedings on the same matter.
The advocate said that the commission was set up when the high court had asked for issuance of red warrants against the accused, but the federal government contended that it could be done only after a formal request from the Balochistan government.
Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, Balochistan former governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Balochistan former chief minister Jam Yousaf are among the accused in the FIR lodged by Jamil Bugti.
Hadi said the police have so far not been able to produce its record pertaining to the murder before the court. “The whole case has been spoiled by the police that was supposed to investigate the matter,” he added. Hadi said that neither the home department nor the crime branch of the police knew who had lost the record.
The police and the district administration of Kohlu, where Nawab Bugti was killed in 2006 as a result of a military operation, have been blaming each other for the loss of the case files. The tehsildar of Kohlu claimed that he had sent the record to the police in 2006, but even after five years the records haven’t been received, Bugti’s lawyer said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2011.