ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Thursday said the Anti-Terrorism Court’s verdict in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case was ‘disappointing’ and ‘unacceptable’.
After the much-awaited verdict was announced, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari tweeted: “BB case decision is disappointing and unacceptable. Release of terrorists (is) not only unjust but also dangerous. PPP will explore legal options.”
His sister, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari said that there will be no justice till Pervez Musharraf was held accountable for his crimes. “There will be no justice till Pervez Musharraf answers for his crimes,” she tweeted.
Aseefa said they had been waiting for justice for the past 10 years. “10 years later and we still await justice. Abettors punished but those truly guilty of my mother’s murder roam free,” she added.
Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari said the court had ordered to arrest police officials but actual terrorists were acquitted. “Musharraf ordered crime scene washed and doors locked trapping BB vehicle inside,” she tweeted seeking the former military ruler’s arrest.
PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman also showed reservations over the decision. “After ten years the real perpetrators were let off. What a terrible travesty of Justice,” she said.
PPP lawmaker Nafisa Shah too was disappointment, saying: “Even after 10 years ATC judgment fails to deliver justice in BB’s trial as the conspirators and main accused especially Pervez Musharraf are not sentenced.”
Meanwhile Thursday, the PPP expressed ‘disappointment and shock’ over the verdict in the Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case announced by the ATC in Rawalpindi. “The party believes that justice has not been done, nor it seems to have been done,” said a statement issued after a party meeting here – chaired by Asif Ali Zardari.
It added: “The acquittal of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists against whom evidence had been provided is most surprising and raise several questions. On its face it seems a triumph of Al-Qaeda militants.”
Two police officers, the statement said, had been convicted and sentenced. “But the question as to who had ordered them to wash out the place of occurrence and destroy crucial evidence has not been addressed. The conviction of the police officers will remain weak unless those giving orders to them were also tried and convicted,” the party said.
The PPP said the prosecutor in the case Chaudhry Zulfiqar was assassinated just when he had reached the critical stage and set to oppose the bail application of Pervez Musharraf.
“The FIR (First Information Report) in the case was got registered by the Punjab police without consulting the family and without making the PPP a party to it,” the statement said.
The party, it said: “recalls the apprehensions expressed by Benazir about the plot to assassinate her. It is common knowledge and she had stated it in so many words that Musharraf had threatened her that if she returned to Pakistan before elections her life would be in danger.”
Since the PPP was not a party to the case, the statement said: “It demands of the government to immediately file appeal against the verdict. The PPP will also employ legal instruments to mount its claim to become a party to the case and file an appeal against the verdict.”
The party, it said, will give a detailed response after full judgment had been made public.