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Pakistan court orders seizure of Musharraf’s property

27 August 2011 22:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Pakistani court on Saturday ordered the confiscation of former president Pervez Musharraf’s property and the freezing of his bank accounts in the country, a prosecutor said, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com webpage.

Musharraf, who lives in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai, is wanted over the 2007 murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in February over what they said was his failure to provide her with enough security.

"The court today ordered the confiscation of Pervez Musharraf’s property and the freezing of his bank accounts in Pakistan," public prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told AFP after a hearing Saturday.

The value of Musharraf’s assets in the country is not known, but he owns properties including two residential flats, a farmhouse in Islamabad and land that is under development in Baluchistan.

The hearing took place in Adiyala prison, in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, and was adjourned until September 10.

The former president and military ruler is alleged to have been part of a "broad conspiracy" to have his political rival killed before elections, though the exact nature of the charges against him has not so far been made clear.

Bhutto was killed after addressing an election campaign rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, on December 27, 2007.

At the time, Musharraf’s government blamed the assassination on the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009, one of the most high-profile casualties of the covert American campaign targeting Al-Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Bhutto, who served two terms as prime minister, had returned from exile two months before she was killed to stand for election.

Her widower Asif Ali Zardari led her Pakistan People’s Party to election victory in February 2008 and is now president.