ISLAMABAD: It appears that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is losing the cooperation of those witnesses on the basis of whose testimonies it had implicated not only former president Pervez Musharraf but also two senior police officers in the Benazir Bhutto murder case.

A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of the FIA implicated Gen Musharraf, deputy inspector general (DIG) Saud Aziz and superintendent of police (SP) Khurram Shahzad in the high-profile murder case in 2010 after recording statements of relevant government officials, rescue workers and senior police officers.

A counsel for Gen Musharraf recently claimed that out of the four witnesses against his client, former secretary interior Syed Kamal Shah and ex-director general National Crisis Management Cell retired Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema did not utter even a single word against the former military ruler. The third prosecution witness, retired Brigadier Ejaz Shah, has been dropped by the prosecution while the testimony of the forth witness - US lobbyist Mark Siegel - is still awaited.

The key prosecution witnesses, who had earlier blamed DIG Aziz and SP Shahzad for the security lapse, ‘vindicated’ both the above-mentioned police officers this time. They claimed that Ms Bhutto could have remained unhurt had she not emerged from the sunroof of her bulletproof vehicle.

Key prosecution witnesses who earlier blamed police for security lapse now say Benazir could have remained unhurt had she not emerged from the sunroof of her bulletproof vehicle

For example, SSP Yasin Farooq, has now stated that the then Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz issued a 16-page detailed security plan for the public gathering of December 27, 2007, after which Ms Bhutto was assassinated. She was given a “box security” during her arrival at and departure from Liaquat Bagh.

The then SSP security, retired Major Imtiaz, in his statement said the “district police issued a security plan for the public gathering. I did not point out any security deficiency to the police officers.”

The JIT report claimed that both the witnesses had supported the prosecution case against DIG Aziz and SP Shahzad in 2009. However, their recent stance was that the sudden and unexpected appearance of Ms Bhutto from the vehicle resulted her death.

In the recent statement recorded before the anti-terrorism court, SSP Farooq stated: “There was no lapse or gap in the security duty of Ms Bhutto.”

He stated that Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Naheed Khan, Safdar Abbasi and SSP Imtiaz were inside the vehicle with Ms Bhutto and they remained unhurt.

SSP Farooq pointed out that DIG Aziz “issued the security order for the public gathering of the PPP on December 27, 2007, and specified the duties of all the police officers and staff.” During the cross-examination, Farooq said, “SSP Major Imtiaz, the security officer of Ms Bhutto, was solely responsible for the security of Ms Bhutto inside the vehicle and he should have not allowed her to come out of the sunroof.”

Following recording of his statement, special FIA prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry filed an application with the ATC and requested the court to declare Farooq a “hostile witness.”

A hostile witness is one who is not willing to cooperate with the prosecution and has to be grilled and cross-examined aggressively.

The prosecutor contended that “the witness has introduced certain new things and also suppressed the facts against his (earlier recorded) statement…and made undue concession to accused Saud Aziz.”

It may be mentioned that the JIT report claimed that DIG Aziz and SP Shahzad alleged that “SSP Yasin Farooq and SSP Imtiaz also equally failed to perform their duties.”

As per the JIT report, in 2010 SSP Farooq disassociated himself from the security arrangements made for Ms Bhutto on December 27, 2007, saying DIG Aziz was the overall incharge and responsible for it. He claimed that his responsibility was within the boundary of Liaquat Bagh. The report claimed that SSP Farooq confirmed that DIG Aziz removed a key security official from Liaquat Bagh without discussing with him.

The JIT in 2010 named both SSP Farooq and SSP Imtiaz as the prosecution witnesses against Aziz and Shahzad.

The other prosecution witness, SSP Imtiaz, stated before the ATC earlier this month that “except Ms Bhutto, all the inmates of the vehicle remained unhurt. Ms Bhutto sustained an injury standing in the escape hatch.”

Commenting on the statement of SSP Imtiaz, prosecutor Chaudhry said it took five years in building a case against the accused persons but the witness spoiled it through his five-minute testimony.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2015

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