Ex-Pakistan leader's account stays closed

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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, July 26 (UPI) -- A Pakistani judge has refused a bank's request to reopen a bank account of former President Pervez Musharraf, judicial officials said.

The ruling on the request by Habib Bank Ltd. in Islamabad came from a special judge Wednesday, The Express Tribune said. Musharraf's bank account was seized by the government during an investigation of the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf, a former four-star Army general, was among those accused in Bhutto's killing and his properties were frozen by the court. He has lived in self-imposed exile in London since 2008, but has said he plans to return to Pakistan to run for president in 2013.

Habib Bank said the account containing about 60 million rupees ($634,000) should be reopened because it was a trust set up by Musharraf and his wife for the welfare of the needy, but trial judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman said the private bank lacked legal standing to make such a request.

A special prosecutor from the Federal Investigation Agency said the bank account was the personal account of Musharraf and was never used to assist the poor.