RAWALPINDI – An anti-terrorism court on Saturday issued a notice to an American journalist, Mark Segal, directing him to appear before it as a prosecution witness against former president and retired general Pervez Musharraf in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
Along with Segal, former Rawalpindi Medical College principal Dr Musaddiq Khan, former Rawalpindi SSP (Operations) Yasin Farooq, former Rawalpindi Headquarters SP Ashfaq Anwar and Rescue 1122 Officer Dr Abdul Rehman have also been summoned to the witness box on the next hearing – January 5 next year – by special judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman.
Musharraf had issued the former PPP chief threats of dire consequences if she returned to Pakistan before the general elections of 2007, Mark Segal, who claimed to be associated with the former slain premier, was quoted as having said by the Federal Investigation Agency in his statement.
The foreign journalist said that Musharraf had phoned Benazir and threatened her not to return before the elections; otherwise she would have to face dire consequences. In her email in October 2007 to Segal, Benazir named some persons who, according to her, would be responsible for her death if another attempt was made on her life after the bombing of her Karsaz rally in Karachi on October 18 same year.  Another witness, former Rawalpindi Medical College principal Musaddiq Khan, who had tried to resuscitate Benazir before she had been declared dead at the Rawalpindi General Hospital, told the FIA that the then city police officer, Syed Saud Aziz, had not allowed him to conduct the autopsy of the gun shot PPP chief.
Former SSP (Operations) Yasin Farooq, another prosecution witness, added that Saud Aziz was in command of all security issues in December 2007, when 23 others and Benazir got killed soon after she wound up an electioneering campaign at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
In his statement to the FIA, former Rawalpindi Headquarters SP Ashfaq Anwar said that being in command of Rawalpindi Police’s Elite Force, he had been tasked with escorting the PPP chief out of the city, after the rally. But then, CPO Saud Aziz sent him to Airport Road to fortify another rally led by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
Punjab Emergency Services Rescue 1122 official Dr Abul Rehman informed the FIA that Rawal Town SP Khurram Shahzad had ordered his firefighters to hose down the crime scene after the suicide bombing at Liaquat Bagh.