BB murder case: Siegel says helped Pakistan get US aid, F-16

Says his firm received US $900,000 from the government of Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: US journalist and lobbyist Mark Siegel on Wednesday told an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) that his firm had been instrumental in helping Pakistan get the third largest US aid and the F-16 aircraft.

Siegel said this through video link during his cross examination by lawyers of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in the Pakistan Peoples Party’s former chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case.



Benazir was murdered in a gun and bomb attack during an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on December 2007. Siegel, a friend of Benazir, had earlier testified that former premier had received threatening call from General Musharraf, who was president at that time.

The ATC started the cross examination at 6:45 pm on Wednesday in the Office of Commissioner Rawalpindi. Special arrangements were made in the Commissioner office to hold video conferencing. Mark Siegel was present in Pakistani Embassy in Washington.

Barrister Faroogh Naseem, representing Musharraf in the assassination case, started the cross examination. According to sources, Siegel in the beginning said he is a Jew but would take oath ‘to the satisfaction of this honourable court’.



In response to a question by the defence lawyer, Siegel said the government of Pakistan hired his legal firm for lobbying in the United States. He said he had been an unpaid lobbyist for Benazir Bhutto.

Siegel said his firm received US dollars 900,000 from the government of Pakistan for lobbying and the amount was less than what the Pakistani government had paid to different lobbyists in the USA.

The cross-examination was underway when this report was filed. There were reports that the defence lawyer would take his maximum time to cross examine the US lobbyist.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2016.