Man up and stop 'behaving like a woman', Musharraf tells Bilawal

Former president doubles down on claim that Zardari behind Benazir's murder

Former president Pervez Musharraf on Thursday doubled down on his claim that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was behind the murder of Benazir Bhutto, stating that he benefited the most from her demise.

In a video response to Bilawal's chants of "Musharraf qatil" during Benazir's death commemoration at Gari Khuda Bux on Dec 27, Musharraf said that ""I would like to say to Bilawal, who is raising these slogans like a woman, that he should first become a man."

"Apart from that I would like to say to him is that saying these things like a child will lead  nowhere, what is the evidence for it [your accusation]?" he asked.

"The one who benefited the most [from Benazir's death] is their father, sitting in their own house, who terrifies them and forces them into raising these slogans against me," Musharraf said.

"What evidence is there against me? You only keep saying that I did not provide any security [to Benazir], How can you say that? I say that the government provided 100 per cent security to her and it was not even my job."

"Benazir was given full security and when she came to Liaquat Bagh for two hours and she passed through the crowd to sit in her bomb-proof car, which we had provided. How is it that not even a hair was out of place in the case of the other five people in the car?"

"He [Zardari] got a fake will written and took over the party. He also became owner of Benazir's property. He has now become so wealthy owing to her death".

"An examination of the evidence,shows that a bomb-proof car had been provided to her. Whose idea was it to cut a hatch on the top of a bomb-proof car?" he asked.

"More importantly, whose idea was it to call Benazir three times and ask her to raise herself out of the hatch and wave to the crowd?"

"Then, who mysteriously took away the phone that Benazir was called on — how did that phone mysteriously disappear for a year and a half?"

"And now think about the fact that their interior minister, Rehman Malik, who was their [Benazir's] security in-charge, fled the scene of the crime. How could he disappear when his duty was with Benazir?" Musharraf asked, continuing his series of questions.

"And then that other guy, his [Zardari's] jail-mate, Khalid Shehenshah, who got him murdered?" he asked.

"All the evidence points to the same person. It is not enough to just say that I am the killer — they need to provide evidence against me as well."

"If I would have done nothing and just sat there, it would have been okay since these external powers — the superpower, America — did not want me to leave," Musharraf claimed.

"They wanted me to remain the president. So [the killing] would not have affected me in any way, because I had an agreement with Benazir."

According to Musharraf, the reason for Bilawal's allegations is to put him down, as well as to put the army down, indirectly.

"There is one thing in all of this that makes me happy: it is that these people are now afraid of me; they are worried I may become too popular," Musharraf said.

"I shall return to Pakistan at a suitable time soon and face their cases too."