KARACHI, April 6: The Pakistan People’s Party is considering appointing a new inquiry tribunal to investigate the October 18 Karsaz blasts at the homecoming procession of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said a senior parliamentarian of the party on Sunday.

Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, the then chief security adviser of Ms Bhutto upon her homecoming, told reporters here that the PPP had no trust in the proceedings of the Karsaz inquiry tribunal, headed by retired Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad, and it wanted to constitute it afresh.

From the very beginning the PPP had boycotted the proceedings of the tribunal on the grounds that it had no faith and trust in it, which the party termed an eyewash, formed to protect the culprits.

The tribunal’s proceedings were also stayed till April 15 by the Sindh High Court on a petition filed by PPP lawyer and now federal Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Farooq H. Naek on behalf of Sindh chief minister-designate Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

The tribunal had so far recorded the statements of 40 witnesses, including police and government officials, and the only man that testified from the PPP was retired Maj-Gen Ahsan Ahmed, who was one of the security advisers of Ms Bhutto.

Dr Mirza, who is tipped as the next home minister of the province, informed newsmen that he had already expressed his reservations about the tribunal in writing.

Being the security adviser of Ms Bhutto, Dr Mirza became the star witness and the Karsaz tribunal had summoned him many times, but he did not appear.

“I am receiving this summons under protest because our leader Shaheed Benazir Bhutto did not recognise this tribunal as free and fair, therefore, we have decided not to appear before such forum,” he had written in a note concerning the summons issued against him.

The Sindh government on Oct 31 had constituted the tribunal, but a rift between the government, then led by former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, and the PPP prevailed as the former refused to lodge an FIR on the complaint of Ms Bhutto despite the fact that she had sent an application to the Bahadurabad police station for the very purpose.

The home department had constituted the Karsaz tribunal to probe and ascertain the circumstances and causes leading to the twin blasts. Other terms of reference include: to examine the security arrangements made by the administration and organisers; to find out negligence and lapses on the part of law-enforcing agencies as well as organisers of the rally; to fix responsibility against the persons/groups involved in the incident and to suggest effective measures to be taken with a view to avoiding reoccurrence of such incidents in future.

Now, the home department is empowered to de-notify the tribunal, but a decision in this regard will be taken only after the formation of the new government in the province.