Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been formally arrested on suspicion of ordering the killing of Baluch politician Akbar Bugti in 2006, according to a ruling by an anti-terrorism court.
“He has been formally arrested in the Bugti murder case,” Musharrafâ„¢s lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri said on Friday.
“An anti-terrorism court has put him on a 14-day judicial remand… He will remain in custody in his Islamabad house,” he added.
Musharraf was president of Pakistan when Bugti, the main leader in the southwestern province of Balochistan, died during an army raid in August 2006.
Kasuri said police officers from the Balochistan capital Quetta had interrogated Musharraf and completed their work on Thursday.
“Musharraf had to appear in court in Quetta, but for security reasons the police team from Quetta came here to Islamabad,” he added. Quetta has been rocked by ethnic and sectarian violence since 2001, when Pakistan joined an alliance with the United States in the so-called war against terrorism.
Musharraf is currently under house arrest at his home in Islamabad in connection with several cases against him, including the Benazir Bhutto case. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27, 2007 as she was leaving an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi. Musharraf has been accused of failing to provide enough security for Bhutto after she returned from exile on October 18, 2007.
He is also facing charges of illegally putting judges under house arrest, after he sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, declared a state of emergency, and suspended the constitution, during a crackdown on the judiciary in 2007.
In addition, Musharraf is accused of violating the constitution for giving the order to arrest the judges.
The former army general, who seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, stepped down as president of the country in August 2008, about six months after his allies lost parliamentary elections in February 2008 and the new government threatened to impeach him. A year later, he left the country.
In March 2013, Musharraf returned to Pakistan after nearly four years of self-imposed exile in London and Dubai to run in the May 11 parliamentary elections.
GJH/MHB
This article originally appeared on: Press TV