LAHORE: A three-member United Nations Commission investigating the events and circumstances surrounding the 27 December 2007 assassination of Pakistan’s twice-elected former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has blamed the government of the country’s former military dictator President General Pervez Musharraf for the murder, saying it simply failed to provide adequate a security cover to the former prime minister.
Having spent eight years in involuntary exile, Bhutto had returned to Pakistan in October 2007 to campaign for a third term in power, only to be assassinated exactly two weeks before the holding of the general elections, set for January 2007. Although no functionary of the Musharraf regime has been accused of complicity in the murder, the 65-page report, which was released after a nine-month long inquiry, has blamed the Musharraf’s junta, particularly its police and security network of criminal negligence that led to the tragic murder. The three-member UN panel, headed by Chilean ambassador Heraldo Munoz, submitted its report to the United Nations Secretary General Ban ki Moon on April 15 , 2010 which he immediately handed over to Pakistan’s UN envoy Hussain Haroon.
The UN Inquiry Commission’s report states: “Ms Benazir Bhutto had emerged as a potential threat for General Musharraf, as she increasingly challenged his plans to maintain his hold on power, first by returning to Pakistan to campaign, then by focusing on the potential for election rigging, and finally by campaigning directly against the military dictatorship during the weeks of martial law”, states the United Nations Inquiry Commission report into the Bhutto murder.
The report states: “Some believe that he became increasingly angry at Ms Bhutto for criticizing him (Musharraf) and his regime so strongly, after having engaged in negotiations with him. Along the same lines, General Musharraf’s allies, the PML-Q were also threatened by Ms Bhutto, as they had the most to lose if the PPP were to win the elections and displace them from their majority position in Parliament. Over the course of her campaign before her assassination, Ms Bhutto developed the view that General Musharraf was the main threat to her safety. As she saw it, his government was not providing the security she was warranted and deserved due to the threats against her and her status as a former prime minister. An email she sent to her United States-based adviser, Mr Mark Siegel, stressed her security concerns and stated: “I have been made to feel insecure by Musharraf and his minions.”
According to the report, many sources interviewed by the Commission believe that the Establishment was threatened by the possibility of Ms Bhutto’s return to high public office and that it was involved in or bears some responsibility for her assassination. “Their analysis is based on years of observation and knowledge of how the Establishment works, although they do not offer any specific evidence with regard to the Bhutto assassination. Several of these sources spoke of the existence of elements within the Establishment who saw her return to an active political life in Pakistan as a threat to their power. These elements included, in particular, those who retain links with radical Islamists, especially the militant jihadi and Taliban groups and are sympathetic to their cause or view them as strategic assets for asserting Pakistan’s role in the region. The development of these organizations and the spread of Islamist extremism, which marginalized secular democratizing forces, was promoted during the military regime General Ziaul Haq (which overthrew the civilian government headed by Ms Bhutto’s father and later executed him); the ISI cultivated these relationships, initially in the context of the Cold War and the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980’s and later in support of Kashmiri insurgents”, the UN report said.
The UN report adds: “While several Pakistani current and former intelligence officials told the Commission that their agencies no longer had such ties in 2007, virtually all independent analysts provided information to the contrary and affirmed the ongoing nature of many such links. Ms Bhutto’s own concerns about threats to her by Al-Qaida and other militant resulted in part from her knowledge of their links with people who had worked with or been assets of the ISI. She feared that the authorities could activate these connections, using radical Islamists to harm her, while hiding their own role in any attack. This was the basis for her allegations against Lt. General (ret) Hamid Gul and Brigadier (ret) Ejaz Shah, in her 16 October letter to General Musharraf”.
The Commission has observed in its report Ms Bhutto, through her writings and public statements, was outspoken as to the sources of the threats she faced; key among these were elements of the Establishment, whose tactics and reach she knew well. “She and many others held the military and the intelligence agencies responsible for a number of “dirty” campaigns against her when she ran for office in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for orchestrating the sacking of her governments. She believed that the policies she advocated – a return to civilian rule and democracy, human rights, negotiations with India, reconciliation with the non-Muslim world, and confrontation with radical Islamists – threatened the Establishment’s continued control of Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto’s relevant policy proposals, including those laid out in the PPP’s manifesto for 2007, called for restrictions on the power of the military and intelligence agencies. She proposed bringing them under civilian, democratic controls, with provisions for transparency and control of the military budget and spending. She vowed publicly to use reforms to rid the intelligence agencies of elements driven by political or religious motives”.
According to the Commission report, some of the positions taken by Ms Bhutto that touched Establishment concerns included: a. Her publicly stated position on the need to eliminate all remnants of the military-militant nexus. Her proposal was to eliminate the military and intelligence ties to the Taliban and jihadis, although many in those institutions still publicly regarded these groups as important foreign policy tools to advance national interests against India in the sub-region. In this vein, Ms Bhutto denounced the military’s various truces with Taliban militants in Swat and the tribal areas, arguing that they amounted to
appeasement. b. Her independent position on the urgent need to improve relations with India, and its implications for the Kashmir dispute, which the military had regarded as its policy domain. c. Her frequent denunciation of the role of the military and the intelligence agencies in domestic politics. d. The perception of her willingness to accommodate Western concerns. While the military and others in the Establishment were willing to cooperate with the United States, United Kingdom and other Western states, Ms Bhutto was portrayed as overly pliant. e. Her alleged willingness to compromise Pakistan’s nuclear programme and allow greater Western access to it. The military has kept a tight grip on its nuclear secrets and its persistent refusal to allow international access to Dr A Q Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist who sold nuclear weapons knowledge to other countries. Ms Bhutto had said that she would give the International Atomic Energy Agency access to Dr Khan, although her statement was twisted in some media stories….”
Therefore, the United Nations Inquiry Commission has urged upon the Pakistan government that the criminal investigation of both the suicide bombings against Ms Bhutto, first in Karachi [in October 2007]and the second in Rawalpindi [in December 2007]in Rawalpindi which killed her, must include a focus on those who may have been involved, not only on the direct operational level, but also in their conception, planning and financing. In this regard, the UN Commission report suggests, the pertinent authorities should follow all leads and explore all reasonable hypotheses, including the possible involvement of those who form part of the Establishment.
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