LAHORE: The Pakistan government has formally raised objections over some findings of the United Nations’ inquiry Commission into the December 27, 2007 murder of the country’s twice-elected Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, saying the investigators did not interview many of the international leaders that Islamabad wanted the Commission to meet.
The three-member UN Commission unveiled its report on April 15, 2010, saying the security arrangements made by the Musharraf regime to protect the former premier were fatally insufficient and ineffective. The UN Commission of Inquiry, appointed last year by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the request of the Pakistan, reached no conclusion as to the organisers and sponsors behind the attack in which a 15-year old suicide bomber blew up Bhuttoís vehicle in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. But it found that the government was quick to blame local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and al-Qaeda although Bhuttoís foes potentially included elements from the establishment itself.
The objections over the Commission’s findings were raised by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The Pakistani Foreign Minister has already confirmed that the PPP government has dispatched a 36-page letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon through its diplomatic mission to the United Nations in New York. Through the letter, the UN chief has been requested to issue contents of the diplomatic communication from Pakistan as an official document of the United Nations. Spokesman for the UN secretary-general has made a one-line comment about the letter of Pakistani foreign minister, addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. “The 25-page letter has been received and is under study” was the comment by the UN spokesman Martin Narisky when he was asked to comment by a Pakistani journalist based in New York.
However, some of the UN diplomats are surprised over the Pakistani letter and its contents, saying it was the same PPP-led government that had persuaded the United Nations to appoint an investigation commission to investigate Bhutto’s assassination. Some at the UN are of the view that the Pakistan government, due to its political, personal and public compulsions, had decided to persuade the UN for investigation instead of investigation by the Pakistani investigation agencies. Now, with the passage of about 30 months, priorities of the government have changed and now they do not want to implement the UN Commission’s report.
Besides castigating the Musharraf regime for its failure to provide adequate security to Ms Bhutto, the UN Commission’s inquiry report also captured some dramatic scenes at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, and wondered why the incumbent Interior Minister of the PPP government Rehman Malik – then her national security chief – saw it fit to beat a hasty retreat in the backup car after vehicle car got badly damaged in the suicide blast that killed her.
Rehman Malik was an occupant of the bullet-proof black Mercedes-Benz, along with the incumbent federal law minister Babar Awan, Farhatullah Babar and Gen (Retd) Tauqir Zia. At the conclusion of the public meeting at Liaquat Bagh, the UN report said, Ms Bhutto descended the wooden stairs of the stage and entered her Land Cruiser. The report gave details of how Ms Bhutto’s vehicle was hit by a suicide bomber, throwing a profusely bleeding PPP leader into the lap of her political secretary Naheed Khan. At this point as her badly damaged car headed to the hospital, there was only one traffic police vehicle ahead of her Land Cruiser. “No other vehicles were visible – neither the bullet proof black Mercedes-Benz car nor any Elite Force unit vehicle. Following the U-turn, the Land Cruiser stalled. The party had to wait for some time on Murree Road until a private vehicle that belonged to Ms Sherry Rehman (former information minister) arrived and took Ms Bhutto to the hospital,” the UN Commission’s inquiry report added.
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