Seizure of Musharraf's property ordered

Declaring him an absconder, an anti-terrorism court on Saturday ordered the seizure of the former President, Pervez Musharraf's property and freezing of all his bank accounts for failing to appear before the court in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case despite several reminders.

In June, the court had issued permanent arrest warrants for General (retired) Musharraf for deliberately avoiding the hearings held in the high-security Adiala Jail. It had also asked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to provide details of his moveable and immoveable property.

Fabricated

The FIA informed the court that the former President's property included a plot in Balochistan, a farmhouse in Islamabad, agricultural land in his wife's name elsewhere besides Rs. 80 million in 15 bank accounts. However, the spokesman for General Musharraf's party, All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), has rejected FIA's claim; billing the list of his assets furnished in court as fabricated.

Given the former President's strained relations with the judiciary, the APML spokesman was also quoted as saying in

The Dawn newspaper that the party had no faith in the present judiciary. “We expect no justice from the existing judiciary which has a strong bias against our leader. We will respond to such bias in the people's court,'' said the APML.