LAHORE: Two years down the road since Pakistan’s twice-elected Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s tragic assassination in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, which houses the General Headquarters (GH) of the Army, her murder mystery remains unresolved despite her husband and now the country’s President Asif Ali Zardari’s significant public statements like “she talks about her murderers from her grave” and that “I know her assassins and will reveal their identity at the right time”.
Addressing his first press conference after the murder, Asif Zardari, made public Ms Bhutto’s October, 20 2007 email to Wolf Blitzer, a staffer of the CNN which mentioned the name of her would-be assassin. “The said e-mail should be treated as Bhutto’s dying declaration. She talks about her murderers from her grave and it is up to the world to listen to the echoes”, Zardari said. Bhutto wrote to Wolf Blitzer in her e-mail: ‘If it is God’s will, nothing will happen to me. However, if anything happened to me, I would hold Pervez Musharraf responsible’. Blitzer received the e-mail on October 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and long-time Washington spokesman for Benazir Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life in Karachi. Bhutto wrote to Wolf: ‘I have been made to feel insecure by Musharraf’s minions’.
On October 19, 2007, a day after the Karsaz suicide bombing on her welcome procession, Benazir disclosed at a press conference that she had informed Musharraf in a confidential letter, written on 16 October 2007 that three senior officials of his government were planning to assassinate her upon her return. ‘However, I had further made it clear to Musharraf that I won’t blame (the) Taliban or al-Qaeda if I am attacked, but I will name my enemies in the Pakistani military establishment,’ she told journalists. Although Benazir did not publicly name the three persons, PPP circles later told the media that they were the then Director General Intelligence Bureau, Brigadier (Rtd) Ejaz Hussain Shah, Chief Minister Punjab Pervez Elahi and Chief Minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim. While concluding the letter, she reportedly asserted that her life was in great danger, particularly from Ejaz Shah.
Significantly, on December 30, 2007, two days after Benazir’s murder, a visibly furious Asif Zardari had accused [at a press conference in Naudero]the PML-Q leadership of his wife’s murder besides describing the party as “Qatil League”. Hitting back in the same tone the same evening (on December 30, 2007), Pervez Elahi had charged Zardari with Bhutto’s murder, saying “Who has benefited the most from the assassination? Zardari, and only Zardari. Check the authenticity of Benazir’s will. Find out the amount for which she was insured.” By that time, Zardari had already been elected as the co-chairman of the PPP.
On October 18, 2008, on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack made on Bhutto’s procession, the Karachi police finally lodged a second FIR of the Karsaz attacks on the basis of her letter, naming three persons as those who could be involved in her assassination. The national newspapers reported on October 20, 2008 that those named in the second were Pervez Elahi, Ejaz Shah and Hameed Gul. Confirming the lodging of the second FIR, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said Ms Bhutto’s own attempts to lodge a second FIR of the Karsaz tragedy were foiled by the PML-Q government. The same day, Qaim Ali Shah declared in Karachi that the three persons nominated by Benazir Bhutto would be arrested soon for interrogations.
However, no such arrests were made. Ten days later, Pervaiz Elahi claimed in an exclusive interview with The News on November 1, 2008 that the Presidency had stopped the Sindh government from implicating him in the Benazir murder case. Perez Elahi revealed that following the registration of a second FIR in the Karsaz case, he and his first cousin Ch Shujaat Hussain went to see Asif Zardari’s close aide, Qayyum Soomro, who had delivered their message to the President. “After our meeting with Soomro during which we protested on the issue, [Sindh Home Minister] Dr Zulfiqar Mirza was told by the presidency not to talk about the case any more”. Elahi’s claim eventually proved true given the fact that after the initial outburst against the PML-Q leaders, not only Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and Sindh chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah fell silent but the rest of the PPP leaders also adopted a mysterious mum.
However, almost two months later, while speaking on the first anniversary of Ms Bhutto, President Zardari claimed on December 27, 2008 that he knew her killers and would reveal their identity at the right time. Six months later, on July 6, 2009, Zardari blamed Musharraf for the Bhutto murder, saying she died by a bullet and not by the bomb that a Scotland Yard report identified as the cause. “I wish Musharraf had looked after my wife as I can look after myself,” Asif Zardari told British newspaper The Telegraph in an interview.
Almost five weeks later, on September 15, 2009, President Zardari conceded at a dinner meeting with senior newsmen that foreign powers with interest in the South Asian region had guaranteed a safe exit to his predecessor, and he too had been party to the deal that was struck at the time of Musharraf’s resignation in 2008. A belated denial issued by the presidential spokesman two days after Asif Zardari’s meeting with the media people claimed that his remarks have been distorted and misrepresented.
In November 2009, General Musharraf was finally made to appear before the UN inquiry commission, taking a U-turn on his earlier stance that any outside agency has no legal ground to question him. Following his refusal to be interviewed, the UN commission had actually warned Musharraf his name would be passed on to the UN Secretary General as the one not cooperating with the commission. As the Commission formally asked the Pakistani government to arrange a meeting of the UN investigators with Musharraf, the latter changed his rigid stance, saying he has no objection meeting the Commission but will not record his statement. He was finally interviewed by the UN Commission in Philadelphia on October 27, 2009.
On December 10, 2009, Lahore High Court decided to precede ex-parte against Musharraf on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against him and others for allegedly plotting the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. On 14 December 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he was extending the mandate of the UN Commission investigating the Bhutto murder by another three months as sought by its chairman who wanted more time to complete its work. The commission was mandated to submit its report to the UN secretary general by 31 December 2009 amidst strong apprehensions that like all infamous assassination cases the people of Pakistan have witnessed, the mastermind in the Bhutto murder case will too remain a shadowy figure on whose role people will only speculate about in whispers.
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