Seven years have passed and as many judges have been changed but the murder case of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto still lies pending in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) since 2008, providing little solace to her devout followers who will be observing her death anniversary on Saturday (today).
The first female prime minister of the Muslim world was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in a gun-and-bomb attack at the end of her party’s rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi.
Chaudhry Azhar, special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), is pursuing the case since May 2013 after the murder of Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ahmed, who remained the special prosecutor for five years and was shot dead in Islamabad’s G-9 area in May 2013.
FIA Special Prosecutor Azhar, while talking to The Express Tribune, said a total of 40 witnesses out of 52 had recorded statements in 2014.
Sharing the details, the prosecutor said that during the year 2014, 40 hearings of the case have taken place with the last one occurring on December 20, which was adjourned due to absence of key witnesses facing life threats.
“The last three hearings were simply adjourned because attorneys of the witnesses did not bother to appear which also caused delay in the case proceedings,” he added.
The prosecutor noted that the key witnesses in this case were reluctant to record their statement after they received life threats from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2013.
He further said that so far eight accused have been charged in the case. They include former president Pervez Musharraf, ex-DIG Rawalpindi Saud Aziz and former SP Khurram Shehzad and one minor Aitzaz Shah. The other accused Sher Zaman, Abdul Rasheed, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat and Qari Abdul Rashid are in Adiala Jail since 2008.
According to the prosecutor SI Ashfaq Ahmed, inspector Muhammad Zamir and Ashfaq were posted at Liaquat Bagh who had recorded the statements of the prime accused including Rafaqat Hussain and Hasnain Gul who have been detained in Adiala Jail since 2008.
“How could the case proceed further when the key witnesses are reluctant to record their statement?” he questioned rhetorically.
The court started the trial de novo because Musharraf was also an accused in this case who landed in Karachi airport on March 2013. He was granted bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2014.
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....and as long as Asif Zardari and Musharraf are around it will remain that way...the truth will never come out.
Looking at the Zardari and other mafia leaders doing their spectacle at the grave seems like traders on their shop selling spurious obselescent expired merchandise