THE status of investigations and trials related to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto nine years ago can perhaps be summed up by this: the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights has referred the matter to the National Commission on Human Rights — and demanded that the NCHR submit its report in two weeks. Perhaps the senators can be lauded for doing whatever little they can to draw attention to the lingering resolution of one of the most traumatic episodes in the country’s history. But what the Senate committee may have inadvertently highlighted is the utter helplessness of public officials and the disregard of the state when it comes to bringing to justice those responsible for the assassination of an iconic woman and a two-time prime minister of the country.

Consider the role played by the PPP itself in the current impasse. Less than a month ago, as the PPP chairman and co-chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Asif Zardari respectively, gathered near the mausoleum of Ms Bhutto to commemorate her ninth death anniversary, there was nary a word mentioned by either party leader — or, indeed, anyone else in the party — about the stalled investigations and prosecutions. Instead, Mr Zardari chose to make himself the centre of attention once again by announcing a perplexing run for parliament. But the problem goes deeper than that. Ever since manoeuvring retired Gen Pervez Musharraf out of the presidency, the PPP has sought to focus blame for the assassination on the former dictator — a political strategy that may be rooted in a factual reality, but not something that the party has appeared particularly committed to helping prove. Meanwhile, the five individuals in custody and accused of involvement in or having knowledge of the plot to kill Ms Bhutto have largely been disregarded by the PPP. The party leadership’s contention that low-level figures involved in the assassination plot are mere pawns, and therefore of little relevance, may be partly true, but laying bare the full spectrum of involvement in a crime that shook the nation ought to be a permanent priority of the PPP.

Perhaps, though, no explanation of the PPP’s apparent disinterest in concluding what has sadly become a saga of trials related to Ms Bhutto’s assassination can be complete without an examination of the state’s utter disregard for solving what remains a national mystery. The Constitution was amended, military courts were created and more than 150 so-called jet-black terrorists sentenced to death by those courts — many for high-profile attacks against military targets. But the interest in identifying and prosecuting the cabal involved in Ms Bhutto’s assassination is nil. Why? The long, bitter political history stretching from the assassination of the country’s first prime minister to the elimination of arguably its most famous prime minister needs legal and political closure.

Published in Dawn January 18th, 2017