LAHORE – The briefing to the Parliamentarians in the Sindh Assembly by Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was a planned attempt to cover-up the issue once for all ahead of general elections while ex-President Pervez Musharraf being made a scapegoat.
The briefing was arranged after former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, an archrival of the PPP, visited Sindh province and criticised the government over slow and ineffective investigations into Benazir Bhutto’s killing.
Mian Nawaz Sharif at a public rally had also assured the Sindhi audience that he, if came into power, would definitely nab all those behind BB’s killing.
Political and security experts believe that it had become inevitable for the PPP leadership to convince the people of Sindh, the stronghold of the party, that the government had left no stone unturned to arrest and unearth all the characters involved in the assassination.
The people of Sindh had been raising questions about the BB’s assassination since the PPP-led government came into power.
‘Right now, the President, Prime Minister, Chairman Senate, and the Chief Minister of Sindh belonged to PPP. If the PPP will not take its voters into confidence at this moment (with regard to BB killing) when they will do this as far the efforts to bring the culprits to justice is concerned’, a high-level source in the Federal capital said, on condition of anonymity.
The more Rehman Malik spoke assertively to convince the public representatives in the Assembly, the more questions he left unanswered, top legal brains as well as political experts say.
According to the experts familiar with the case, five questions related to BB’s assassination remain still unanswered.
On whose orders the crime scene was washed? Who killed Khalid Shahanshah in Karachi? What about the murder of police DSP Ranjha in Karachi after the Karsaz blast? Was there inside job by some PPP high-ups and what about the investigations into the Karsaz incident?
Highly-placed sources revealed that the briefing was pre-planned as the top PPP leadership had already decided to make the report public months before the general elections.
They said that main objective of the briefing was to convince and win the support of the Sindhi jialas that the PPP-led government had done enough as far as assassination of Benazir was concerned.
The Interior Minister on Tuesday gave three-hour long briefing consisting of facts garnered by the Joint Investigation Team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the wake of resolution passed by the Sindh Assembly, demanding that the Federal government to make public Benazir murder investigation report.
Investigation experts revealed that the PPP government deliberately did not expose the international conspirators, individual or State-actors, who masterminded the gun and bomb attack on the country’s most popular politician in 2007.
Sources in the Federal government said that nobody from the PPP high-ups had ever been interrogated in the high-profile assassination despite the fact that international investigators pointed finger at some individuals.
Quoting the United Nations report, they said, that the agency had also held Interior Minister Rehman Malik responsible for security lapse.
Malik had abandoned his leader soon after the attack and left her at the mercy of attackers while he was in the back-up vehicle and responsible for the security matters.
‘Why Malik has not been interrogated yet?’, questioned Brig (Retd) Farooq Hameed, a leading defence and political expert.
However, Malik claimed that nobody was spared in the investigations.
Security experts said that almost all the things had already been stated and there was nothing new in the briefing of the Interior Minister.
Talking about former President Pervez Musharraf, Rehman Malik claimed that BB had not been provided adequate security and the government would bring back Musharraf through Interpol.
‘The PPP government (in the report) tried to make ex-President a scapegoat. If Musharraf was found responsible for security lapse, then Malik is also responsible for abandoning his leader and leaving her at the mercy of attackers while he was in the back-up vehicle’, said a top security expert, who like some others interviewed for this story preferred not to be quoted.
As per the probe findings of United Nations and Scotland Yard investigation team shared by head of counter-terrorism wing, FIA, Khalid Qureshi almost everything had already been stated by the then Interior Minister during a Press conference arranged just hours after the incident.
During the briefing, Malik said that the team have got all the details of BB murderers and 27 Taliban groups were involved in the assassination.
According to report, the murder plot was engineered by a top al Qaeda leader Abu-ubaid Almisri that was executed by Baitullah Mehsud through Haqqani network.
The plot was planned at Madrassa Haqaania, Akora Khattak in Nowshera at room no.96 of seminary student Anwar Shah. Mullah Umar and Jalauddin Haqqani were also the students of the same seminary.