Nawabzada Jamil Bugti, son of Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, claimed on Wednesday that former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf through his lawyer begged pardon over the ‘murder’ of the slain leader.
Talking to a private news channel, Jamil Bugti maintained that during the hearing of Akbar Bugti’s murder case in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) he bluntly rejected a request made by Musharraf’s counsel for pardoning the former president for his father’s murder.
“The lawyer requested me to pardon Pervez Musharraf, I out rightly rejected his request,” Jamil Bugti said, adding that he feels “it is ‘unethical’ on the part of a lawyer to seek pardon for his client inside the court”.
However, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) rejected Bugti’s assertion and termed it a propaganda against the former president. “Musharraf is not guilty of any crime and cannot make such request”, the party said.
APML Secretary Information Aasia Ishaque termed Jamil Bugti’s assertion a ‘drama’ to become the chief of Bugti clan after his father.
She said that Jamil Bugti’s statement regarding the apology “is a blatant lie as Pervez Musharraf has done nothing wrong”.
Jamil Bugti had also moved court seeking exhumation of his father’s body for carrying out a DNA test by an international forensics team, the court had accepted his plea on December 24.
In a separate application, Nawabzada Bugti also requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed.
Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in August 2006 in an explosion in a cave where he had taken refuge during a military crackdown ordered by Musharraf who was the president and the army chief at that time.
