Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will be arrested in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto if he returns to the country, a government prosecutor said Saturday.
There is no need for any âfresh arrest warrantsâ for him as a court has already issued orders for his arrest, prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told reporters.
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Hours earlier, Mr. Musharraf told a Pakistani news channel that he would come back later this month to contest the next parliamentary elections, which could be held later this year.
Mr. Musharraf has been living in London and Dubai since 2008 when the government, led by Ms. Bhuttoâs party, forced him to resign.
Ms. Bhutto was killed in 2007 in a gun and suicide bomb attack near the capital, Islamabad, after returning home to contest elections. Mr. Musharraf, at the time, had blamed the Pakistani Taliban for her murder, but the prosecution alleges he was part of the plot.
Mr. Musharraf now heads his own faction of the All Pakistan Muslim League, a small political party that does not have any major base in the country. Some of his former supporters have quit his party.
His spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, asserted that the arrest warrant for Mr. Musharraf had no legal value.
âWe have challenged this arrest warrant in a court,â he said, adding that Mr. Musharraf would announce a final date for returning home this week, but âhe will come back soon to lead the nation.â
