(Web Desk) - Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of former president Pervez Musharraf in Benazir Bhutto murder case till May 28.
Musharraf was not presented before the judge for today s hearing due to security reasons.
The court also put off hearing a bail application by Musharraf until May 20, prosecutor Ch Azhar said.
He said, "the court extended Musharraf s judicial remand until May 28 when it hears the case again," adding that the adjournment came after Musharraf s lawyer Salman Safdar could not attend the hearing.
This was the first hearing after the main state prosecutor handling Bhutto s 2007 murder and the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali, was shot dead in Islamabad en route to court on May 3.
During case proceeding, Chaudhry Azhar blamed caretaker interior minister for Ch Zulfiqar s assassination.
Though Musharraf was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days, the 69-year-old former military ruler will continue to be restricted to his plush farmhouse at Chak Shahzad on the outskirts of Islamabad, which has been declared a "sub-jail".
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi in December 2007.
Musharraf was formally arrested by the FIA on April 25 after the anti-terrorism court directed investigators to include him in the probe into the assassination. He has been accused of failing to provide adequate security to Bhutto after she returned to Pakistan from self-exile.
He was also declared a fugitive by the anti-terrorism court after he refused to cooperate with investigators. He is facing several other criminal cases.
Lawyers have petitioned the Supreme Court to put him on trial for treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007 and he is also facing charges over the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation.
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