On June 21, as Pakistan observed the 55th birth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto,who was assassinated at Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, there has been anintriguing reluctance on the part of the ruling coalition led by the PakistanPeople's Party (PPP) to pursue the investigation into her assassinationvigorously and to prosecute those already arrested.
While Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the former Amir of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI),who had been named by her as a principal suspect in the failed attempt to killher at Karachi on October 18, 2007, has been quietly released after being inpolice custody for some time, the police investigation into her assassination onDecember 27,2007, has been discontinued. While legal proceedings have beendelayed against those who have already been arrested and who have confessedabout their role in the assassination, no action to arrest others, who had beendeclared as proclaimed offenders in the case by a court, has been taken.
Among those declared as proclaimed offenders in the case is Baitullah Mehsud,the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Instead of taking action tohave him arrested and prosecuted, the government has been negotiating a peacedeal with him under which in return for his releasing Pakistani security forcespersonnel in the custody of the TTP and calling off all acts of suicideterrorism, the government has offered to withdraw the Army from South Waziristanand make the Frontier Corps, a para-military force consisting largely of localPashtun tribals, many of them sympathetic to the Taliban,responsible forinternal security in South Waziristan.
The government was embarrassed when US spokesmen repeatedly expressed theirsurprise over the Pakistani government holding talks with the principal suspectin the assassination of Benazir and when Baitullah addressed a press conferencein which he said that any peace deal will apply only to Pakistani territory andnot to the operations of his men in the Afghan territory against the NATO forcesand the Afghan National Army. Following these developments, the Govt. hassuspended the peace talks with him, but has not asked the security forces to goafter him in order to arrest him in the Benazir Bhutto case.
The case against those already arrested is being adjourned frequently under somepretext or the other on petitions filed by the defence counsels without thegovernment opposing these adjournments, which are against the provisions of theAnti-Terrorism Act, which clearly stipulate that the legal proceedings interrorism-related cases should be held on a day-to-day basis withoutadjournments.
Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) No I of Rawalpindi once again adjourned on June 21,2008, the hearing into the Benazir murder case till July 14, 2008.
Critics of Asif Ali Zardari and Rehman Mallick, his confidante, who is theAdvisor to the Ministry of the Interior with the status of a Cabinet Minister,have been alleging that neither of them seems to be interested in pursuing thecase in order to bring to justice those responsible for her assassination.Rehman Mallick was a senior official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)during the second tenure of Benazir as the Prime Minister (1993-96) and became aclose confidante of Zardari. When former President Farooq Leghari dismissed herin 1996, he also suspended Rehman Mallick and ordered an investigation intocharges of corruption against him. He escaped to the UK, from where he was co-ordinatingthe personal security of Benazir during her travels while she was in politicalexile. When she returned to Pakistan on October 18,2007, he returned before herand was looking after her physical security. There was considerable criticism ofhis absence from the vicinity of Benazir on December 27,2007, when she wasassassinated.
Despite his alleged failure to protect her, he continues to enjoy the trust ofZardari who got him appointed as the Advisor to the Ministry of the Interior.
Murtaza Ali Bhutto, the younger brother of Benazir, was killed in a policeencounter outside his Karachi residence in September,1996, after he had returnedto Karachi from a visit to Islamabad where he allegedly had a quarrel withZardari, who reportedly opposed his demand that he should be designated as theVice-Chairman of the PPP. The failure of the Karachi Police to vigorously pursuethe investigation was one of the reasons used by Farooq Leghari to dismissBenazir shortly after the murder of her brother. Zardari was among thosearrested and prosecuted by the police after her dismissal in connection with themurder of her brother. He was got discharged honourably from the case by thePPP-led coalition after it assumed office in the last week of March,2008.
Till today, the full facts relating to the murder of Murtaza and the identitiesof those responsible are not known to the public. The whole case has beencovered up. There seems to be a similar attempt to cover up the case relating tothe the assassination of Benazir despite the government ostensibly moving the UNfor an international investigation under the supervision of the UN SecurityCouncil. After her assassination, President Pervez Musharraf, in response toallegations of a cover-up by PPP leaders including Zardari, had requested theBritish government to depute a team from the Scotland Yard to help in theforensic investigation. A team visited Pakistan and did a thorough forensicinvestigation. No action has been taken by the government to follow up on theirforensic investigation either.
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The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.
