It's been nearly 10 years since the two-time prime minister of this country, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated, but there is no answer to the question, who killed her? In its mystifying verdict announced last month, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted five suspects affiliated with the TTP (whose deceased leader Baitullah Mehsud is believed to have masterminded the murder plan), handed 17 years jail sentence to two police officials for criminal negligence, also declaring former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf - on whose watch the murder took place - an absconder, but failed to hold anyone responsible for the crime that shook the nation. Although the family had not been a party to the court proceedings, the slain leader's spouse, Asif Ali Zardari, has since filed three appeals against the ATC's verdict in the Lahore High Court's Rawalpindi bench, also blaming Gen Musharraf for the murder. That has drawn an angry response from the latter. In a video statement posted on the social media, he has accused Zardari of eliminating Benazir as well as her brother, Murtaza Bhutto, killed in a dubious 'encounter' with the police in Karachi in September 1996, when the PPP ruled both in Sindh and at the Centre.
Notably, Benazir's family as well as impartial observers have been casting suspicions in the direction of former military ruler, citing at least three reasons: first, in an e-mail to her friend in Washington, Mark Seigel, Benazir had expressed fears about her security referring to a telephonic conversation with Musharraf in which he had made provision of security to her dependent on their mutual understanding and relations; second, the scene of the murder was hurriedly hosed down, destroying any evidence that could lead to the perpetrator(s); and third, the concerned officials did not carry out post-mortem on her body, mandatory under the law. Maintaining his innocence, Gen Musharraf for the first time made several assertions in his defence. He had wanted Baitullah Mehsud dead, he said, "after his group had attempted to kill me." On the other hand, he claimed, Zardari had a great relationship with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, "a link he could have used to influence Mehsud and his people," adding there was another senior official who could have used his influence over Mehsud. And, of course, he dismissed the allegation that he had not given Benazir adequate security, saying the gun-and-bomb attack on her came after she had safely concluded her public meeting and was inside her bullet-and-bomb-proof vehicle. He also pointed to weaknesses in Benazir's personal security. Rehman Malik and "an inexperienced man", Zardari's old jail mate, Khalid Shahinshah, he said, were in charge of her security, raising the questions, "who took the decision to create a hatch in the roof of a bullet-and-bomb-proof vehicle?" And who "called her incessantly on her phone and got her to come out of the hatch and wave to the people?" Furthermore, he averred, "what is suspicious is that Shahinshah was also murdered under mysterious circumstances. And what is even stranger is that the man who murdered Shahinshah was also killed," going on to point the finger at Zardari.
This exchange of accusations is unfortunate, indeed. The sad reality about such high profile political assassinations is that even when a murderer is caught, the real perpetrators stay unknown and unpunished. The man who pumped bullets into Pakistan's first prime minister, Liaqat Ali Khan, at a public meeting in Rawalpindi was lynched right on the scene of the incident. To date, its planners remain hidden behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. Even in a well-established democracy like the US, the assassin of one of the country's most popular presidents, John F. Kennedy, was shot dead while in police custody. Although the man who murdered the president's murderer survived to die about four years later in a jail, no one has a clue as to who may have ordered Kennedy's elimination; only conspiracy theories abound. That, however, should not mean if something has not happened before it can never happen. Hopefully, the LHC will bring to justice whosoever killed Benazir Bhutto.
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