ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chose the fourth death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto to pose questions, former to the Supreme Court and the latter to the PPP-led coalition government.
Hours before PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s speech in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in which he indirectly blamed the judiciary for the delay in resolving the case of Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the PML-N presented a questionnaire to the government on important points about incidents on and after the December 27, 2007, the day Ms Bhutto was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack outside Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
President Zardari, who has been facing criticism from within and outside the party for his government’s failure to trace Ms Bhutto’s killers, asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry: “What happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case?”
On the other hand, the PML-N has asked the PPP government to give categorical replies to its 15 questions which, it says, can help resolve the mystery shrouding the assassination.
A PML-N spokesman reiterated Mr Nawaz Sharif’s commitment that the PML-N would carry out a thorough investigation into Ms Bhutto’s assassination whenever it came to power.
In an apparent reference to former law minister Babar Awan, the PML-N asked the government “why those who quit the cabinet to re-open the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case and are seen with suspicion within the party have not been quizzed properly?”
The opposition also wants to know the logic behind reopening the ZAB case after 32 years whereas it has failed to trace murderers of Ms Bhutto despite being in the government for four years.
The PPP leadership should explain reasons for its lack of confidence in the country’s security institutions and why it decided to spend millions of rupees on carrying out investigation through the Scottland Yard?
Another important issue raised by the PML-N in the questionnaire is the government’s decision to keep secret Ms Bhutto’s email which she had sent to the then government before her arrival in the country and in which she had mentioned names of people who, according to her, could plot her assassination.
The PML-N has also raised suspicion over the murder of Ms Bhutto’s personal security guard Khalid Shahanshah on July 22, 2008, just before the arrival of the Scottland Yard team in Pakistan. “Why the government has so far not made public the investigation report about Mr Shahanshah’s murder?”
The PML-N wants the PPP leadership “to disclose names of all party people who were responsible for Ms Bhutto’s security and their team in charge besides complete detail of their places of postings during the public meeting at Liaquat Bagh”.
The PML-N has raised doubts about “mysterious disappearances” of some PPP leaders from the scene soon after Ms Bhutto’s assassination.
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