Benazir murder case: Musharraf rubbishes Mark Siegel’s claim

Ex-president says he only phoned Benazir after she returned to Pakistan in Oct 2007

ISLAMABAD:

Former military ruler General (retired) Pervez Musharraf has vehemently denied that he made menacing telephone calls to Benazir Bhutto ahead of her return to Pakistan in 2007, as claimed by American journalist Mark Siegel in his testimony before an anti-terrorism court.

On Thursday, Siegel testified via video link from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington before an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi which is probing the former premier’s assassination.

In his testimony, Siegel claimed that Benazir had received a phone call from Gen Musharraf in DC wherein he told her in a menacing tone to delay her return until after the elections and that her security in Pakistan depended on the relationship she maintained with the Musharraf government.

“This claim is entirely false, fictitious and appears to be willfully fabricated,” Musharraf said in a statement posted on his official Facebook page on Friday. “I not only resent the implications, but find them to be libellous with malicious intent, designed and perpetuated through him by the enemies of Pakistan who want to distort facts in an attempt to shift the blame.”

Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the Musharraf-ledAll Pakistan Muslim League (APML), Dr Muhammad Amjad, told media in Islamabad on Friday that the former president had not called Benazir prior to her return to Pakistan in 2007.

“Besides meeting Benazir twice in UAE, I only spoke to her once in my life on the phone -- after she had returned to Pakistan in October 2007,” Musharraf said in his statement, adding that he shared intelligence about suicide bombers wanting to target her.

The former president said that if he had indeed called to threaten Benazir why had Siegel not mentioned it in his 2008 book on the late premier. He also questioned Siegel’s claim about the presence of Asif Ali Zardari at the time when he allegedly phoned her.

“It is also extremely mystifying as to why former president Zardari … has never mentioned it [the call] and did not pursue this claim aggressively while he was the president of Pakistan for five years.”

Musharraf further stated that if he had threatened Benazir, she would never ask him to provide her with security.

“It is also widely known in the public domain that Benazir wrote a letter to me a few days before her return to Pakistan in October 2007, in which she had expressed threats from General Hamid Gul, Brigadier Ejaz Shah, and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. If I had also threatened her, I wonder why she would write to me to solicit protection from these gentlemen.”

Musharraf also asked why the inquiry repeatedly insisted upon Siegel’s involvement.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2015.