Already under an obligation to write to the Swiss authorities to reopen the cases against President Asif Ali Zardari after the Supreme Court threw out the review petition on the NRO, the federal government is going to face another challenge as the Balochistan government has forwarded to it the arrest warrants for former president Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz in the Akbar Bugti murder case for further proceedings.
Sources in the Interior Ministry said the Balochistan Home Ministry has sent the arrest warrants for the three accused to the ministry for bringing them back from abroad through Interpol and face the trial.
A trial court in Balochistan had issued the arrest warrants for the three and subsequently, the provincial government forwarded the orders to the federal government.
Earlier, the Balochistan High Court (BHC) had directed the police to register an FIR against the nominated people. A case was registered in Dera Bugti in October, 2009 on the application of his son Jameel Akbar Bugti against Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, former Balochistan governor Owais Ghani, former Balochistan chief minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf, then interior minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani.
However, the three accused including Sherpao, Jam and Ghani submitted written statements before the BHC, stating that they were part of a civilian setup and the operation was launched by the army and they had nothing to do with the killing of Bugti. The court issued the arrest warrants for Musharraf and Aziz on the request of the Crime and Investigative Department (CID), which is investigating the case on the directives of the BHC.
The sources in the Interior Ministry said the ministry might adopt either of the two channels for extraditing the accused — by directly approaching the Interpol or involving the FIA and the Foreign Office.
