KARACHI: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has denied he had ever made a threatening call to Benazir Bhutto in 2007 as was alleged by a US journalist the other day. He termed Mark Siegel’s statement as a “heap of lies” and said that the opposition was trying to use the journalist’s statement against him. Musharraf denied that he had established telephonic contact with Benazir Bhutto. The former president said that if Benazir Bhutto had been under threat from him, then she would not have asked him for her security. He said that his opponents were using the journalist’s statement against him. Musharraf inquired as to why those revelations hadn’t appeared in the book that had been edited under the supervision of Mark Siegel. It is pertinent to mention here that Mark Siegel had revealed in his statement that Musharraf told Benazir that her life was in danger and that her security was linked to better relations with him. Mark Siegel said that he was with Benazir when the former president made the threatening call. He said that Benazir listened to this phone call in Tom Lantos’ office and Benazir looked quite troubled after the call. Musharraf declared the claim of Mark Siegel as “false, fabricated, fictitious and malicious”. In a message posted by him on the social media, Musharraf stated that he strongly and unequivocally rejects the claim of Siegel, a close adviser, paid lobbyist and co-author of the last book by the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. “I am shocked and amazed at Mr Siegel’s assertion that I made a threatening phone call to Ms Bhutto,” Pervez Musharraf said. The former president went on to say that besides meeting Benazir twice in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he only spoke to her once in his life on the phone after she returned to Pakistan in October 2007. “In that conversation, I shared with Ms Bhutto intelligence information that was conveyed to me personally by the leadership in the UAE, indicating suicide bombers were planning an attack on her,” he said. He further said that he found the testimony of Siegel despicable and the implications to be libelous with malicious intent. “Mr Siegel’s statement also compels me to inquire from him why did he choose to omit this fabricated claim from the last book of Ms Bhutto: ‘Reconciliation, Islam, Democracy and the West’, which he co-authored and was published after Ms Bhutto’s assassination,” he said. He added, “It is also widely known in the public domain that Ms Bhutto wrote a letter to me a few days before her return to Pakistan in October 2007, in which she had expressed threats from General Hamid Gul, Brigadier Ejaz Shah and Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi. If I had also threatened her, I wonder why she would write to me to solicit protection from these gentlemen.” Musharraf further said, “It is also extremely mystifying as to why former president Zardari, who Mark Siegel claims was also present with Ms Bhutto when she received this threatening phone call from me, has never mentioned it and did not pursue this claim aggressively while he was the president of Pakistan for five years.” It is pertinent to mention here that on Thursday, key witness, journalist and lobbyist Mark Seigel said in his recorded statement that Benazir Bhutto received a threatening call from Musharraf three weeks prior to her arrival in Pakistan. His statement in the Benazir Bhutto murder case was recorded at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington in the presence of a judicial officer via video link to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi. While recording his statement, Seigel broke into tears while he spoke about Benazir. He went on to say that the call to Benazir was received on September 25, 2007, as she was sitting in the office of US Senator Tom Lantos. Seigel added that as the phone rang she showed him her phone screen which said ‘Musharraf’. He further said that after receiving the call she seemed very disturbed. He went on to say that Musharraf in his phone call said to Benazir that her life was in danger and that her involvement in any political activity in Pakistan would be her own responsibility. According to Seigel, Musharraf also said to Benazir in his phone call, “Your security is dependent on the relationship between us.” Seigel said that Benazir emailed him to say that if she was killed, then Pervez Musharraf would be held responsible.
