ISLAMABAD: Minutes after it was announced that the team investigating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto had named Pervez Musharraf as an accused in the case, some quarters started mounting pressures to get the name of the former military ruler out of the list.

Dawn News has learnt that FIA’s joint investigation team, headed by senior police officer Khalid Qureshi, did not intentionally inform Interior Minister Rahman Malik and FIA Chief Waseem Ahmed that they were going to put Musharraf’s name in the list of accused to ensure that there is no political interference in the high-profile case.

“It is shocking for me, I don’t know why they did not inform me? I might issue these officers show cause notices for doing this,” Rehman Malik is reported to have told some officials.

Two FIA lawyers hold divergent views on the issue.

Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the main prosecutor in the case, believes that Musharraf is an accused, but Advocate Chaudhry Azhar, known for his close relations with Mr Malik, told Dawn News that Musharraf was not an accused.

He said that a questionnaire could be sent to him about the case.

Sources claim that the moment TV channels aired the news that Musharraf had been nominated as an accused, Mr Malik immediately contacted Chaudhry Azhar who was in the Anti-Terrorist Court and asked him who had placed his (Musharraf’s) name in the accused list?

The sources claim that Chaudhry Azhar told Mr Malik that he himself had come to know about it in the court.