ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf (pictured) is ready to meet the United Nations investigators probing the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on whose watch she died, but has refused to record any statement because he believes any outside agency has no legal ground to question him, his lawyer said here yesterday.

“The commission probing Bhutto’s assassination has not approached Musharraf and instead has written a letter to this effect to the Pakistan government, so the former president is not responsible for responding to the communication,” Chaudhry Fawad said.

“The UN commission wrote a letter to the Pakistan government, which ought to respond to it. Whenever the UN investigators will approach the former president, he will respond to them.

He has no objection to meeting the UN commission but will not record his statement because a probe by any agency or organisation from outside Pakistan puts a question mark on the credibility of Pakistani investigation agencies,” he added.

The lawyer quoted Musharraf as saying that the people who were involved in attempts on his life were involved in the assassination of the slain Pakistan People’s Party chairperson. “Foolproof security arrangements were in place and had Bhutto not stood up in the vehicle, she would have not been killed,” he quoted the former president as saying.

Fawad said Musharraf was of the view that Bhutto was informed about the threat to her life and she was asked not to return to Pakistan before elections. “She was informed about the security threat but she did not take effective precautionary measures,” he quoted Musharraf as saying.