Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf could be acquitted in the Benazir Bhutto murder case due to lack of evidence as key witnesses have retraced their statements implicating him, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
Former prime minister Bhutto was killed in 2007 in Rawalpindi as she came out of a park after addressing an election rally.Musharraf, 71, was president of the country at that time but he resigned in 2008 under popular public pressure.later, he was implicated in Bhutto's murder case in 2010.
Dawn reported that case against Musharraf was built on four witnesses, including former interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah, former director general of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, former IB director general retired Brig Ejaz Shah and the US lobbyist Mark Siegel.
Out of three Pakistani witnesses who held key posts under Musharraf, two of them already retraced their statements implicating their former boss while prosecution decided not to call Ejaz Shah into the witness box, saying his testimony was not needed.
Kamal Shah and Cheema had recorded their statements before the anti-terrorism court in January this year.
Musharraf's lawyer Ilyas Siddiqui claimed that both Shah and Cheema did not utter a single word in their testimonies implicating Musharraf.The only witness the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has to produce is the US lobbyist Siegel, who according to joint investigation team (JIT) report held Ejaz Shah responsible for the attack. He had also accused Musharraf and his top aides,including Brig Shah, of threatening Bhutto.