Summary The court ordered to submit two surety bonds worth Rs 1 million each.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - A bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan hearing the Bugti murder case on Wednesday accepted the bail application of former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk, observed that substantial evidence was not available to involve Musharraf in the criminal conspiracy regarding Nawab Akbar Bugti s murder and granted bail to the former military strongman.
Musharraf was also ordered by the SC to pay two bail bonds of Rs 1million each.
Though the court had summoned Jamil Akbar Bugti son of Nawab Akbar Bugti, who is complainant in the case, he remained absent from today’s hearing.
Musharaf s council, Advocate Ibrahim Satti, stated that Anti-Terrorist Court and High Court had rejected Musharraf s bail plea on grounds of technicalities.
Satti further said that Musharraf had been kept under house arrest for more than six months only because of the Akbar Bugti case and that according to a court ruling, incase a bail application was rejected over technical grounds the apex court was the authority to hear the case
Additional Prosecutor General Balochistan Tahir Iqbal Khattak said that "Musharraf is accused of being a part of criminal conspiracy."
He further added that Musharraf was chief executive and a CD recording is available with the complainant s council displaying the attack on Bugti s home.
"People were killed during those attacks!" he declared.
Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany in return inquired, "whether anyone had witnessed Musharraf or his alleged accomplices conspiring against Bugti?"
The court then stated that no substantial evidence was available to implicate Musharraf in the murder case of Nawab Akbar Bugti.
The SC then accepted Musharraf s request for bail, and ordered him to submit two bonds of Rs 1million each as surety.
Musharraf is also involved in two other cases with the apex court, namely the Benazir murder case and the Judges Detention Case. He had been granted bail in both cases.
Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in an explosion in a cave, where he had taken refuge, on August 26, 2006 during a military crackdown ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time.
Bugti had led an armed campaign to press for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan’s natural resources.
The death of the Baloch chieftain sparked angry protests in parts of the country.
