The assassination of top political leaders is a common affair, some of the prominent ones being Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy of USA, Indira Gandhi and her son Rajev Gandhi of India and Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. While the assassins in most cases were identified and punished, the identity of Benazir Bhutto’s murderers has become a mystery. From Day-1 our leaders have been giving airy fairy statements like ‘we know the BB’s murderers’ and at times declaring the possible involvement of Pervez Musharraf and Taliban in the crime.
The recent statements of our political leaders on the subject are, however, flabbergasting. (1) Talking to the media at the Lahore Airport before his departure for Larkana to attend the 4th anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz revealed that the Interior Minister Rahman Malik was about to disclose names of BB’s murderers but Bilawal Bhutto restrained him. He may do so on the anniversary’s occasion. Rahman Malik, however, did not do so.
(2) While President Asif Ali Zardari was addressing people during the anniversary some one asked ‘what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case?’ To the astonishment of everyone he replied ‘I ask chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case? He perhaps did not realise that judiciary only comes in action once the investigation is complete and the case filed against the criminals.
(3) In his statement the other day Rahman Malik mentioned that ‘killers of Benazir Bhutto had been exposed but they were investigating the assassination from different angles’. One may ask the interior minister if a period of four years was not enough to view the case from all angles?
(4) In his latest interview with a private TV channel, President Zardari confirmed that ‘he knew who had murdered Benazir Bhutto’. Is not it strange that despite knowing them the President does not want to expose and punish the criminals who murdered a leader who happened to be his wife?
RAFI NASIM
Lahore, January 10.