RAWALPINDI, April 17: The Lahore High Court extended former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s bail in the murder case of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto by one week on Wednesday.

The LHC’s Rawalpindi bench comprising Justice Abdul Sami Khan and Justice Ali Baqir Najafi directed him to submit surety bonds of Rs1 million and appear before it again on April 24.

The former military ruler faced embarrassment as some lawyers raised slogans and used abusive language against him even in the courtroom soon after the judges rose for the day. They also tried to follow him when he was leaving the courtroom, but Rangers officials stopped them and blocked their access to Gen Musharraf whose supporters also scuffled with the lawyers. About 300 personnel of Rangers, police and the elite force were deployed at 38 points in and around the court for the security of Gen Musharraf.

During the hearing, Justice Khan asked Gen Musharraf’s counsel Barrister Salman Safdar why he had bypassed the anti-terrorism court (ATC), which is seized with the Benazir murder case and approached the LHC for the bail.

The counsel said Gen Musharraf was facing life threats and security in the LHC was comparatively good, adding that his client had already escaped two suicide attacks when he was president of the country.

The court asked why he had been out of the country for a long time and did not return even after the issuance of summons. Barrister Safdar said there was not a single case against Gen Musharraf when he had left the country. He had been implicated in a number of cases when he was abroad, the counsel said, adding that his client knew that the cases were false and, therefore, he returned home.

He said the former president had quit his office in August 2008 and remained in the country till April 2009. Initially, he added, Gen Musharraf was not among the accused in the Benazir murder case, but the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) included his name in the challan in 2010.

The ATC issued arrest warrants for Gen Musharraf in Feb 2011 and declared him proclaimed offender in August the same year and ordered confiscation of his property.

Barrister Safdar alleged that the FIA’s challan was politically motivated because there was not a single witness on record who had testified against Gen Musharraf. He said the only witness was US lobbyist Mark Siegel, but he had not even appeared before the court for recording his statements, despite issuance of several summons.

Barrister Safdar argued that since Mr Siegel had not appeared before the ATC to record his statement on oath, his statement had no legal value.

He said the PPP government had assigned the job of investigation into the Benazir murder case to the FIA, although it was constituted to probe financial scams.

The counsel alleged that during a briefing to the Sindh Assembly on the case last year, an FIA official had made certain political statements against Gen Musharraf.

Barrister Safdar informed the court that Interpol had also refused to execute the red warrants against the former president because they knew that it was a politically motivated case.

When the court officials at the outset called the name of Gen Musharraf, his counsel informed the division bench that his client would arrive in a few minutes.

“We will wait for 30 seconds and if the accused does not arrive then we will leave the courtroom,” Justice Abdul Sami told the counsel.

However, Gen Musharraf arrived before the deadline.