–PPP chairman says ‘those who washed evidence from Benazir’s murder site have been set free’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday announced that he wanted to become a party in the murder cases of his mother Benazir Bhutto and maternal grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, as the Supreme Court (SC) rejected a petition seeking the suspension of bails granted to two police officers accused in the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The PPP chairman said this while addressing a press conference after the hearing of a petition filed by Rasheeda Bibi, the mother of Benazir Bhutto’s chief security officer Tauqeer Kaira against the high court’s decision to grant bails to former Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Saud Aziz and former SP Khurram Shahzad in the case.
Bilawal said that he wished to become a party in the murder cases so that he could follow up on their progress.
“Three generations of my family and the PPP have come to the SC seeking justice,” he said, adding that when his father was president, he had sent a reference to then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry about the Zulfikar case which has not been heard till date.
“Those who helped in washing away the evidence in Benazir Bhutto’s murder case have been acquitted,” Bilawal asserted, lamenting that no measures were taken to protect the former premier.
“Box security was given to Shaukat Aziz when he was PM and to Chaudhry Shujaat when he was PM but Benazir Bhutto ─ who was not only targeted on October 18, and everyone was saying her life was in danger ─ her security cordon was, on that day, sent away. They were sent away from the scene and could not provide that security cordon to her and left her a sitting duck for terrorists,” he claimed.
“After the incident, the crime scene was washed with a fire hydrant hose. The same thing happened on Oct 18.”
“You may remember when terrorist attacks took place during Musharraf’s era, the crime scenes were protected for days and each piece of evidence was collected. Here, they washed the crime scene,” he further claimed.
Bilawal further said, “I am Zulfikar Bhutto’s grandson and I will use my legal rights to get justice.”
PETITION REJECTED:
Earlier in the day, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa upheld the bails granted to the two police officers.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf, Farhatullah Babar, Mehreen Anwar Raja and other party leaders were present at the hearing.
Bilawal is expected to file a plea against the acquittal of accused in Benazir’s murder case.
The petition filed by Kaira’s mother was earlier rejected by the SC registrar which argued that officers Aziz and Shahzad were granted bail and posted at important positions against the rules.
It said that Aziz and Shahzad were suspects in the Benazir Bhutto murder case since they had cleaned the site of Bhutto’s death soon after the attack.
The counsel for the police officials told the court that “since the petitioner, Rasheeda Bibi, had passed away, her petition was ineffectual”. The court, however, rejected the lawyer’s request to declare the petition ineffectual, saying that “Bibi’s daughter had in the last hearing become a party to the petition,” and asked her lawyer to continue with his arguments and questioned on what basis the bails were granted.
“Scotland Yard conducted an investigation and bails cannot be granted under the anti-terrorism act nor can Islamabad High Court’s constitutional powers be curbed under Article 199,” he added.
The head of the two-judge bench further remarked, “Benazir Bhutto was to be provided security and the CPO was responsible for it while Saud Aziz deployed the SSP and contingents of police.”
“BB was shot at point-blank range and before landing in Karachi she had named certain people,” he added.
Latif Khosa maintained that one cannot get bail against an anti-terrorism court’s judgement. “On what basis were they granted bail?” he asked.
Justice Khosa, however, said that the high court’s constitutional powers could not be curbed.
“The police officials have been out on bail for one year,” Justice Khosa noted, to which Latif responded, “The bail is unlawful, they were involved in a murder conspiracy… They were granted bail in haste.”
“What will you get out of them going to jail?” the judge asked, to which Latif responded: “It is a question of the supremacy of law. The high court has exceeded its powers, the ATC’s law has an overriding effect.”
Further, Justice Khosa questioned, “Did the state challenge the bail of the accused?” Responding to him, Latif Khosa said, “The state has challenged their bails and I have also requested the chief justice of Pakistan to fix a date for the hearing of our petition but it has not been fixed even once.”
Latif Khosa further said, “The accused in violation of the law did not even conduct a postmortem. How can they be granted bail when they were sentenced to 17 years in prison by the ATC?”
The petitioner’s lawyer added, “The CPO was involved in the controversy from day one.” Questioning once again how the bail can be granted, he added, “Musharraf is also accused in the case.”
To this, Justice Khosa remarked, “BBC produced a 10-series documentary report on the murder and conducted more investigations for it than our agencies did.”
“We also have to consider the angle that whether innocent people are being trapped in the case,” he added.
Rasheeda Bibi’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa said that “the police officers were involved in the murder conspiracy”.
When asked to present the evidence, Latif Khosa said that the “police officers were involved in destroying the evidence,” adding that “there was also an appeal against the trial court’s decision pending before the high court”.
“Conducting a post-mortem examination was their responsibility, Latif said, adding that they were also the ones behind the murder and the investigation.
“It is strange to expect Asif Zardari to have a post-mortem examination conducted,” Latif said.
After Latif Khosa concluded his arguments, Saud Aziz’s lawyer Khalid Ranjha began his arguments before the court.
“The Punjab government formed the joint investigation team,” he recalled, “And they presented five challans. My client was not nominated in the case at the beginning of the investigation. He was named on Nov 13, 2010,” Ranjha said.
“Who is the actual accused?” Justice Khosa asked.
“No one was punished in this case,” replied Khurram Shahzad’s lawyer. “My client was accused of washing the crime scene,” he said, following which the lawyer said that his response to who directed him to clean the crime scene was not on record.
“It is a simple matter, this question was asked by the probe team on the first day,” Justice Khosa said. “The investigation begins from here. This question must be asked. This is where the issue arises,” the judge asserted.
The court subsequently rejected the request for cancellation of bail and upheld the high court’s decision. It observed that there are appeals pending before the high court in this matter, and said that the accused did not take undue advantage of their bail.
