Musharraf remanded over Benazir Bhutto case

Mr Musharraf has described all the cases against him as politically motivated

A Pakistani court has ordered house arrest for ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the death of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

He was arrested late on Thursday over the long-standing accusation of failing to provide enough security for Ms Bhutto after she returned from exile.

Her assassination at an election rally in Rawalpindi that year was blamed by his government on the Taliban.

Under the terms of the order he will be held under house arrest for three days.

Mr Musharraf is already under house arrest at his home in Islamabad on charges connected to the dismissal of judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007. That remand order is set to expire in early May.

Reports say he will serve the three-day remand order connected to the Bhutto case concurrently.

He has dismissed all the cases against him as politically motivated.

The former military ruler returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile in the hope that he could lead his party into elections next month, but he has been disqualified from standing in the polls.

He seized power in a coup in 1999 and ruled the country for nine years before being ousted in polls and ultimately left the country to live in exile in Dubai and London.

The Pakistani Taliban have also vowed to assassinate the former president.

A 2010 UN report said Benazir Bhutto's death could have been prevented and said that Mr Musharraf's government failed to provide enough protection - at the time his aides dismissed the report as a "pack of lies".