London:
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, General Parvez Musharraf, who faces a non-bailable arrest warrant in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case, said he will not take any blame for the death of the former Pakistan premier.
General Musharraf is wanted by the law as he looks to return to his homeland early next year. "I will go to jail if I have to... but won't take any blame for Benazir's death," said the General, who was president of Pakistan for nine years.
Benazir Bhutto was killed by a suicide attacker shortly after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. She was attacked weeks after she returned to Pakistan after spending several years in self-exile.
General Musharraf said Benazir was herself to blame for her death. "Had she been inside the car, there were five other people inside the car. They are all very safe, not even a minor injury. So wasn't that a success of security? So her standing..." he said, referring to Benazir's move to stand up and wave to her supporters through the sunroof of the car as she was leaving the rally venue.
It was at this moment that the motorcycle-borne suicide attacker struck, shooting her in the neck before blowing himself up.
The former Pakistan President said that he had warned Benazir about the threat to her life. "She didn't listen to me. In Karachi and then later on, when she was in Rawalpindi, the first time that she wanted to go to this very place, Liaquat Bagh, where she was then assassinated, I stopped her from going there," he said.
But he let her go the next time, said General Musharraf, due to the hue and cry she and her party made after she was stopped the first time.
He said that the Pakistan government has "no foundation at all" in the case against him. "I know that as far the legalities of the case are concerned, it doesn't stand on any solid legs at all," he said.
Maintaining that the President did not provide security to anyone, he said, "If there is some kind of action, which is on political basis, which is very unfair, I am prepared to face the worst and face the trial."