Partly Facetious: what does PPP expect from a UN probe?

24 Jan, 2008

"So it's a UN probe and nothing else will do!"
"That is the line taken by the bereaved husband, Asif Zardari."
"Do you have any doubts?"
"None whatsoever, if people like you and me are affected by the death of Benazir Bhutto then one can just imagine the impact on her husband and children."
"That's true."
"Anyway I can't understand the insistence on a UN probe."
"Neither can I! It's not as if the UN came up with any answers with respect to the probe into Hariri's death."
"Answers in terms of presenting irrefutable truth you mean?"
"Precisely and there the evidence had been preserved."
"That's right and if you do not allow the investigators to exhume the body to check as to the cause of death, the basic terms of reference of Scotland Yard..."
"And if they have no other forensic evidence to sift through because you washed the murder site..."
"Then the result is going to really not make waves, I agree. But why does Asif Zardari insist on a UN probe?"
"I am not sure - maybe he thinks it will be more prestigious or maybe he thinks that Musharraf will expand the terms of reference of the inquiry for a UN investigation team, terms that he has made rather narrow for the Scotland Yard team, and ask them to determine the who rather than focusing only on the how."
"Maybe but as matters stand today it is rather difficult to understand what the PPP expects the probe to achieve..."
"I am not sure either."
"But a probe is critical..."
"Indeed but none of the probes we have had into the deaths of our politicians have actually determined the identity of the perpetrators."
"That's true too, even those who died when in power like Ziaul Haq."

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