Interior Minister Rehman Maliks absurd statements make a mockery of the august portfolio that he holds whose importance in our survival as a nation has further increased given the scourge of terrorism. The recent one is that about 150 members of the provincial assemblies have received SMSs warning them to tender their resignation failing which they will be shot dead. These days our intelligence agencies as well as certain mobile companies have the technology that can easily trace the sender of the SMS and not only that, the exact location of the cell phone under use can be ascertained with pinpoint accuracy. The whole mystery should have been unravelled by now. Mr Malik ought to have told who these persons were and what were their motives. Have they come from outer space or are they inside the country and if the latter is true why is no action being taken against them? At the same time he also stated he knows the killers of Benazir Bhutto but the partys permission was required first to make their names public. He should know that keeping the identity of the culprits secret and not making them public so as to initiate proceedings against them amounts to protecting them. Besides it is the PPPs own government that holds the reins of power and when will they name and arrest those killers if not now? Are the killers so powerful that even the federal government cannot catch them? It has been over three years now since President Zardari claimed categorically that the party was familiar with the identity of the killers and would reveal their names at the appropriate time. When that appropriate time will come, nobody knows. The case has been dragging on and on in the court and there is no sign that the government will pace up the prosecution so as to get to the heart of the whole mystery. Mr Maliks antics and the conduct of the PPP top brass in the entire case lends support to the charge that the party is deliberately giving precedence to its political survival, rather than going after the assassins. The right way forward is to act on various investigation reports some of which raise serious objections over the role played by some of the PPP members including Mr Malik for not properly attending to the duty of looking after Benazir before and after the attack. It is no wonder that they keep saying we know the killers but cannot expose their names. PPPs dithering over the issue has seriously dented its credibility. All the actors and forces no matter how strong and thus far elusive should be thrown in the dock so that the proceeding of the case could proceed forward.