Why has Benazir murder case been delayed?

ISLAMABAD: The biggest hurdle at present in conclusion of trial of the crucially important Benazir Bhutto murder case is the absence of former president General Pervez Musharraf from the country.

General Musharraf is alleged to be the part of the conspiracy of killing of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto. The killing was ultimately ordered by the then Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and was executed by his men in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, according to the details of the case.

“General Musharraf is one of the accused and we have presented before the court whatever evidence regarding his involvement was available with us,” Khawaja Imtiaz, one of the prosecutors in the case, told The News, adding: “Without the statement of all the accused under Section 342 CrPC, the trial of the case could not be concluded.” He said that an application on this count has already been moved in the court praying that the exemption given to General Musharraf under section 205 of CrPC should be withdrawn immediately. The application is yet to be decided and the next date of hearing in January 2. 

However, it seems that even if court ordered the accused to return and appear before it, a few elements in the govt, who allowed ex-dictator to go abroad despite a Supreme Court order, will not allow start of a process for return of ex-dictator.

Khawaja Imtiaz explained that in case Musharraf does not return to Pakistan, it will be prayed that file of General Musharraf be separated from main file and the case is decided in the matter of others involved. He said that in this way the case will not be concluded and General Musharraf’s coming back to Pakistan and appearing before court is very important. 

Khawaja said that he was hopeful that the remaining part of trial, the statement of accused and the argument will be concluded in few weeks and the case must be decided till the month March 2017.

Three accused persons General Musharraf, CPO Saood Aziz and SSP Khurram Shehzad are free on bail while five accused persons i.e. Rafaqat (taxi driver, facilitator), Husnain Gul (provided residence to suicide bomber, facilitator), Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah, Abdul Rasheed (all three knew conspiracy of killing but never disclosed) are in jail. None of them was directly involved in act of killing. 

However, Khawaja Imtiaz said all these persons, including General Musharraf, were part of the conspiracy to kill Benazir Bhutto in one way or the other.

Seven other characters of the conspiracy included Baitullah Mehsud, Ibadurehman, Abdullah, Faiz Muhammad, Ikramullah, Nasrullah and Nadir are all proclaimed offenders according to the record of the case. However, most of them were reportedly killed in US drone attacks on Pakistan or during different operations against the terrorists in tribal areas and other parts of the country.

Though politics of PPP and all its leaders revolves around the person and sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto but no PPP leader ever took any interest in trial of the case of her murder even when the party was in power.

Neither Asif Ali Zardari, nor Bilwal Bhutto Zardari, nor any other top PPP leader used to visit the trial court in courtroom of Adyala Jail where most of trial proceedings took place. As a political party, PPP became part of proceedings of the case after some six years only in August 2013 and deputed Latif Khosa as lawyer of the party. There was no problem in attending the hearing of the case at both the places.

Khawaja Imtiaz, one of the prosecutors in the BB murder case, told The News that he was assisting the anti-terrorism court for the last two years but never witnessed any top PPP leader attending the proceedings of the murder case except Latif Khosa who came to attend the hearing and facilitate the process at the time of statement and cross examination of Mark Siegel.

Siegel is an important witness in the case and testified BB fears about Musharraf’s intention to kill her. Lawyers and journalists who remained attached with the proceedings of the case state that hardly any PPP top leader turned up in the court during hearings.

It is worth mentioning that not only leaders but even the jialias/workers of PPP ignored the court hearings. PPP came into power less than three months after the assassination of BB and the first thing it forgot was the murder case of its slain chairperson. Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was elected prime minister on March 31, 2008. However, he never attended the court proceedings even after leaving the charge of office.

After him, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was elected prime minister. He hails from Rawalpindi where trial of the murder case took place but he also ignored case proceedings. Arrival of important leaders or personalities in such high profile cases brings cases in lime light and an unseen pressure always mounts for early conclusion of the proceedings. However this case was totally ignored for unknown reasons especially by those were part of the party of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed through during last nine years.