The Pakistani Spectator

Different speculations were made regarding he tragic death of Benazir Bhutto, former Premier of Pakistan .The government of PPP decided to investigate the case and take the help from universal institutes. UN is an impartial and authentic institute and now its report is issued on 15April 2010.  It is to be seen that what actions the government will take to assure that the culprits are given due punishment.

It is revealed in this report that the Musharraf government is responsible for the ruthless murder of Benazir Bhutto. There were no proper security arrangements for her at that time. The report has categorically denied any chance of President Asif zardari or any member of his family to be involved in the murder.

The head of the inquiry commission of the UN Heraldo Munos told during a media briefing in the UN Headquarter that the Musharraf government had no security plan for BB and Rawalpindi police had not taken any appropriate measures for investigating this incidence.

In the light of this report 6 officers were made the OSDs who were discharging their duties on 27 December 2007. Their names have been included in the Exit Control List. The Provincial Secretary for food Irfan Elahi was DCO Rawalpindi at that time. RPO Multan and former DPO Rawalpindi Saud Aziz, SSP Operations Yasin Farooq, SP Headqarter Rawalpindi and former ASP Civil Lines Ashfaq Anwar, SSP Investigation Gujranwala and former SP Rawal Town Khurram Shahzad and additional IG CID Abdul Majid are also included. Establishment Division has issued the notification of their orders.

On December 27, 2007 when at a political rally at Liaquat Bagh there was a huge raise of slogans by the party members. In response to their cheers the Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto   stood up in her car and answered in the traditional style by waving her hands. In the meanwhile a suicide bomber blew himself. There was firing also. During such incidence many people including Benazir Bhutto were killed.

The inquiries were conducted by the Scotland Yard Investigative Team. After the Pakistan Peoples Party came into power, the government approached the UN for constituting a commission. Its head and members visited Pakistan many times and proceeded on the issue and came out with their findings.

In light of this report the Federal Law Minister Dr Babar Awan met the President in the Presidency and discussed the matters relating to the UN report. He gave in detail briefing to the President regarding the constitutional and legal aspects of the steps adopted by governments after this report.

The President Asif Ali Zardari has said that UN inquiry report will prove to be a valuable document in coming to terms with the murderers. Here it is also noteworthy that ten million dollars were spent on this report.

During a meeting under President Zardari it was said that action should be taken against all the persons who were responsible for murder of Benazir including Pervez Musharraf. In this connection the task was assigned for preparing the cases to the legal team and interior Ministry. In this meeting the UN report was appreciated and it was said that it bears testimony to the stance of Peoples Party that the responsibility of Mohtarma’s death lies on Musharraf’s government which did not adopt proper measures for her security and to conceal this heinous crime all the evidence was washed in a hurry. Keep in mind that it is clearly stated in the report that the place of murder was washed and it gave way to increased chance of various apprehensions about the perpetrators of murder.

It was also decided in the meeting of the core committee that FIR will be registered against Pervez Musharraf.

The Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gillani has  constituted a three- member fact finding committee which will submit its report within seven days relating to the washing of the crime scene. Secretary Cabinet Abdul Rauf will be its head. The other members include Vice Chief of Staff Major General Sajjad Ghani and Peshawar Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Fiaz Toru. Some resources reveal that the Military high command was also taken in confidence by the Prime Minister with reference to its constitution.

The Presidential spokesman Farhat ullah Babar also said that the negligence and criminal inefficiency of police at that time is now proven. Also this report has strengthened the apprehensions of PPP that the murder of Benazir was a result of a conspiracy hatched to deprive Pakistan of a charismatic leader. She claimed for judicial independence and was the symbol of political fore sightedness. Her assassination is the murder of democratic values. This conspiracy has deprived Pakistan from a great leader.

Fingers were raised why the Peoples Party kept silent for two years. One logical answer to this query can be the fact that PPP wants to demarcate clearly between fact and mere inference of some party or group. That is the reason why it waited patiently for a rational, concise and true to the fact report about the murder

Let us look at the views expressed by some participants in a talk show on TV recently. The protocol Officer of the former premier, Ch Muhammad Aslam termed the breech of security mainly responsible for this tragedy. The government had the latest equipment and technology hence it showed a criminal negligence. The Central Information Secretary PPP Fozia Wahab also said that the intelligence agencies did not cooperate towards exploring the facts of assassination. Answering one question about the suicide blast the spokesman of the General(r) Pervez Musharraf, Rashid Qureshi said that no security agency has the solution to suicide bombing whether it is Raw, Mossad or KGB.

Whosoever is the person involved, the UN inquiry report has now determined the ways for criminal inquiry commission of Pakistan. Now the responsible persons must be brought to the justice as the mystery is untangled. In this way the internal threats to political leaders and establishment will be warded off for times to come.