Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his party’s government had asked the Interpol to issue a “red warrant” against former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf in his mother’s assassination case.
Pakistan has asked the Interpol to issue a “red warrant” for Musharraf’s arrest, 23-year-old Bilawal told the Sunday Times. Musharraf, who has always denied involvement, has been living in London since he resigned after elections in 2008 which brought the PPP to power.
“The UK should do the right thing,” Bilawal said, hoping that the British government would hand Musharraf over to Pakistan to face the trial in Benazir’s assassination case.
Benazir was killed in a gun and grenade attack in December 2007 during an election rally in Rawalpindi. Pakistan has recently informed the Interpol that the warrant issued for Musharraf by an anti-terrorism court in connection with the Bhutto assassination case will remain valid until its compliance.
Although, Bilawal says the instructions were issued by al Qaida and the attack was carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, it is the man he calls “General Dictator Pervez Musharraf”, whom he blames.
“Musharraf murdered my mother,” he said. “He knew about specific threats to her life and I believe he sabotaged her security, knowing she’d be murdered by the terrorists.”
Under Pakistani law, Bilawal cannot run for office until he is 25 but says he will follow in his mother’s footsteps and campaign in next year’s elections for the party. “They’re very large footsteps,” he said. “I can’t pretend I’d be able to follow them in the same way but I want to make sure she didn’t die in vain. That’s what drives me.”
He is working with the PPP youth and women’s wings and plans a foundation in his mother’s name.
Bilawal, whose mother was assassinated, grandfather was hanged, one uncle was shot dead and another was poisoned, said he is well aware of the risks. “I don’t know whether I’ll be allowed to live,” he said. “It’s the price we pay for fighting for democracy in Pakistan.”
Bilawal is now lobbying US officials just as Bhutto once did, but it is an uphill task. “I believe if we were given half the support the world gave the dictator who murdered my mother we’d show you a new Pakistan,” he said.