Benazir murder case verdict leaves a lot to be desired

ISLAMABAD: The judgment of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), handed down after a decade, left unanswered the first and foremost question who planned, masterminded and executed the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Meanwhile, the verdict brought another bad news for former dictator Pervez Musharraf whose property has been confiscated as per the ATC order and he has been declared as an absconder for not having presented himself before the court. Thus, the Benazir Bhutto murder case will remain pending as far as he is concerned, and it will be reopened whenever he will be back in Pakistan.

In a murder case, the real culprits, who commit such a heinous crime, are imposed the maximum punishment while the abettors and facilitators also imposed lesser conviction if their guilt is proved. It will be a big surprise if the actual murderers are released but their accomplices and conspirators are punished.

As the young men, who faced the murder trial, are not the murderers of Benazir Bhutto as per the ATC judgment. Who are the killers? There is none to give answer to this question. Following this verdict, this most important case comes to an end, and there is no hope that efforts will ever be made to trace and try the actual killers.

Senior police officers Saud Aziz and Khurram Shehzad, the only accused sentenced to 17 years imprisonment each, were found to have committed criminal negligence and dereliction of duty but they were certainly not the sponsors and killers of Benazir Bhutto. Whatever charges they faced emerged only after the assassination had taken place.

Washing of the crime scene, not getting the post-mortem done and non-provision of adequate security to the illustrious lady for which the two police officials were convicted occurred after she had been murdered.

All the five acquitted young men were the main accused in the murder case. They stood exonerated as per the ATC decision. Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad were not arraigned for assassinating Benazir Bhutto but for not doing what they should have done for being in the police.

The prosecution of the high-profile murder case remained “orphaned” as far as Benazir Bhutto’s spouse Asif Ali Zardari and her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were concerned from day one because they never took even minor interest in pursuing it vigorously in the ATC or anywhere else.

They were in government for five years when they were in a good position to do a lot to take the case to the logical conclusion. But they wittingly or unwittingly did nothing. Perhaps they had no hope that the actual killers would be caught and punished. It was never heard that Zardari or any other PPP leader of even the second tier ever attended the ATC proceedings to see what is happening there. They had let the case proceed at the pace chosen by others.

On his acquittal from the last corruption reference by an accountability court last week, Zardari said that he kept running with the courts till they got fatigued. By thus boasting, he presented himself as the shrewdest politician, who knows how to win a legal battle with endurance and perseverance.

But this talent was nowhere in sight in fighting the case of his wife’s murder. He can only explain why he was always nonchalant and unconcerned. During his government, Zardari took some cosmetic measures like the request to the United Nations to appoint a commission to investigate the murder case.

The world body had obliged but when its commission had prepared and released its findings, the PPP disputed it, turning the whole exercise into a futility. On the other hand, Zardari and the PPP have kept referring to Benazir Bhutto’s sacrifice obviously to take political mileage.

Several hours after the pronouncement of the ATC judgment, there was no full-fledgedpresser from top PPP leaders particularly Zardari, Bilawal, and any other senior stalwart that showed the party’s well-considered overall approach to the case.

They have much obsession of addressing news conferences every now and then on important issues, but this case did not merit any powerful reaction. Bilawal gave his reaction on twitter -- the decision is disappointing and unacceptable; release of terrorists is not only unjust but also dangerous; and the PPP will explore legal options. His sister Aseefa tweeted that there will be no justice till Pervez Musharraf answers for his crimes; ten years later we still await justice; and abettors punished but those truly guilty of her mother’s murder roam free.

PPP leader Nafisa Shah said in a tweet that even after ten years, the ATC judgment fails to deliver justice as the conspirators and main accused especially Musharraf has not been sentenced.

The ATC verdict was perfectly in accordance with the judgments that the most important political assassinations of the world had attracted. Since such murders remain untraced, question of conviction doesn’t arise. There were no proceedings or conviction in the murder case of Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.

The exoneration of all the five accused is a highly dismal reflection on the performance of the prosecution. It was officially claimed immediately after the murder on behalf of the then military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, that the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for the crime. Some audio tapes had also been then played to show its guilt.