ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top military leadership including Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Inter Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha have declined a recent request by the United Nations Commission investigating the December 2007 assassination of the country’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to question the country’s khaki top brass.
According to well placed government sources in Islamabad, through a letter to the government of Pakistan, the head of the UN Commission Heraldo Munoz had sought access for interrogating Army Chief General Kayani, the incumbent ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the former director general of ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Taj who is also a close relative of General Musharraf and the former director general of the Military Intelligence. The UN Commission was of the view that it actually wanted to meet the top leadership of army and the intelligence agencies to connect some vital pieces of information pertaining to the Bhutto murder case. It may be recalled that Lt Gen Nadeem Taj was serving as DG ISI while Maj Gen Nadeem Ijaz as DG MI at the time of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
The sources further informed that the Pakistan government remained silent over the UN Commission’s request for interviewing the top khakis for some time but as the pressure mounted, it decided to forward the UN letter to the GHQ for necessary action. However, the GHQ simply refused to allow the United Nations Commission to quiz the Army Chief and other top military leadership, saying it was against the dignity and prestige of the COAS and other top military officials to be interrogated by the UN Commission, and that too in a murder case. However, the UN Commission is insisting that under the terms and conditions of the inquiry, the Pakistan government should provide access to any military or government official or a particular individual, which it thinks could throw light on the Bhutto assassination. The UN Commission was constituted on December 14, 2008 by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who had mandated the investigators to submit their report by December 31, 2009. However, the UN secretary general recently announced that he was extending the mandate of the UN Commission by three months as sought by its chairman who wanted more time to complete its investigations.
amir.mir1969@gmail.com