In the eyes of the public, there can be no credible excuse for postponing the release of the investigation report about the assassination of PPP popular leader Benazir Bhutto. Paying rich tributes to her memory or pledging to continue her mission is simply not enough. The fact that Chairman of the PPP Bilawal Zardari was not present at the meeting of the Central Executive Committee held on the eve of her third death anniversary at Naudero on Sunday, when it was expected that the report would be made public, would hardly satisfy the large body of supporters of the deceased Chairperson. Rather, they would feel greatly hurt at this untenable pretext. With PPP President and Prime Minister in the saddle for nearly three years now, and with little indication that any serious effort has been made to investigate, let alone identify the culprits and put them in the dock in a court of law, the world would be justified in assuming that the government has some serious reservations about proceeding with the matter.
Against this background, the emotional rhetoric of the President, Prime Minister and other high functionaries of the government and the party that they were in the know of those who had been involved in the murder and would announce their names at the right moment, sound no more than attempts at hoodwinking the public.The government cannot take credit for assigning the case to Scotland Yard or the UN to resolve the mystery. In any case, it has reservations about some of the conclusions of the UN commission that was constituted for the purpose. The commissioning of the world body in a crime committed locally, while our own investigating agencies are equipped with the right kind of expertise to do the job and, therefore, able to handle it more thoroughly, appears to be a mere charade. Lebanese leader Rafiq Hariri’s example, where the UN commission’s agenda included the inquiry whether a foreign government had a hand in his murder was not relevant here – Nation
