Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 in a bloodless coup against current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was acquitted on Monday of the murder of a separatist leader in 2006, removing one of several cases against him.
Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for Baluchistan, Pakistan’s biggest province and the richest in mineral resources. He was killed in a battle between tribal militants and government forces in the restive province in 2006.
Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered the killing. But on Monday, an anti-terrorism court in the provincial capital, Quetta, acquitted him.
“We aren’t satisfied with the judgment and will challenge it in court,” Sohail Rajput, the lawyer for Bugti’s family, told reporters outside the court.
“They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free,” Rajput said.
The court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, also acquitted former provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and former federal interior minister Aftab Sherpao.
The leader’s son, Jamil Bugti, had accused Musharraf and several of his aides of involvement in the killing of Akbar Bugti in an FIR filed in Dera Bugti in 2009.
Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015.
The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti.
In a separate application, Jamil had 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.
Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder.
Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time.
His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan.
Two co-accused – Musharraf’s then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan – were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti.
Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court.
