Pervez Musharraf still under probe in Lal Masjid case

Islamabad:  Beleaguered former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is still under probe in the Lal Masjid case and the impression that he has been given a clean chit is "totally wrong", a top police official has said."The Islamabad Capital Territory police are still investigating charges against former president Pervez Musharraf in Ghazi Abdul Rashid (Lal Masjid cleric) murder case. The impression that ICT police have cleared him in the murder case is totally wrong," Sikander Hayat, Inspector General Police (IGP) Islamabad, told reporters.

Hayat said that the complainant had failed to produce witnesses against the accused (Musharraf) as promised earlier during the due course of time.This is what the police investigation team told the court that released the accused on bail, he said."The complainant could produce only two out of 20 witnesses as promised earlier," Hayat said yesterday, adding that the police were still investigating the case.Musharraf was released on bail by a court on Wednesday after nearly six months of house arrest and the status of his house as a sub-jail was de-notified.

Hayat said police commandos and the rangers were still performing duties at Musharraf's residence as it was the duty of ICT police to provide the former president foolproof security, The Nation reported.Musharraf, 70, has been living under house arrest in his farmhouse in Chak Shehzad, on the outskirts of Islamabad, declared sub-jail by the authorities.He has been under arrest at the palatial farmhouse, guarded by nearly 300 security personnel, including soldiers and snipers.

Musharraf was army chief when he took power in a 1999 coup and later became president. He stepped down after the Pakistan Peoples Party won the election in 2008.Besides the Lal Masjid case, Musharraf has been granted bail in three other cases over the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation and the imposition of emergency in 2007.

The cases were filed after he returned to Pakistan from self-exile in March to revive his political career. However, a court barred him from contesting polls for life.Musharraf is still on the Interior Ministry's Exit Control List which bars him from travelling out of Pakistan and his party has claimed he will return to active politics.After Musharraf recently submitted surety bonds to the Supreme Court and came closer to possible release, Islamabad Police arrested him last month in the Lal Masjid case.Musharraf, who was then army chief and President, had ordered the crackdown on extremists holed up in the Lal Masjid in 2007. About 100 people, most of them extremists, were killed in the operation.

On the orders of the Islamabad High Court, a case was registered against Musharraf on September 2, charging him with the murder of the cleric and his mother.The case was filed after the cleric's son filed a complaint with police and approached courts.