“I strongly and unequivocally reject the claim of Mark Siegel, a close advisor, paid lobbyist and co-author of the last book of the Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto,” Musharraf said in post on his official Facebook page. “I am shocked and amazed at Mr. Siegel’s assertion that I made a threatening phone call to Ms. Bhutto. This claim is entirely false, fictitious and appears to be willfully fabricated.”
He said: Besides meeting Ms. Bhutto twice in UAE, I only spoke to her once in my life on the phone after she had 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 UAE, indicating suicide bombers were planning an attack against her.
“I find the testimony of Mr. Siegel despicable; it could not be further from the truth. I not only resent the implications, but find them to be libelous with malicious intent, designed and perpetuated through him by the enemies of Pakistan who want to distort facts in an attempt to shift the blame,” lamented the former president and once army chief.
Meanwhile, the ex-president also tweeted link to the post through his official Twitter account.
“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.”
“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,” he stated. “If I had also threatened her, I wonder why she would write to me to solicit protection from these gentlemen.”
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, he argued.
“Nonetheless, I strongly believe the truth will ultimately prevail; justice will be served, and these false politicized charges against me will be discarded by the courts,” read the post.
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