RAWALPINDI:
Eighteen years after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto – the ‘Daughter of the East’ and Pakistan’s first female prime minister – the legal maze surrounding her murder remains unresolved, its many threads still tangled despite years of investigations, trials and appeals.
The long life after Benazir’s trial is still deprived of closure as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers and leaders commemorate the death anniversary of the former prime minister at the site where she was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27, 2007.
Although the PPP remained in power for eight years after her murder, it failed to identify or bring to justice those behind the murder.
The case dragged on for a decade before a special anti-terrorism court and has now spent another eight years languishing at the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
From 1 January 2024 to 27 December 2025, the case was not scheduled for hearing once, and there is little prospect of it being taken up before 31 January.
Benazir was assassinated on 27 December 2007 in bitterly cold and cloudy weather, moments after addressing a public rally in Rawalpindi’s historic Liaquat Bagh. As she left the venue near Liaquat Bagh Chowk, she was first shot at and then targeted in a suicide bombing.
It was the second assassination of a prime minister in Liaquat Bagh, named after the country’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was similarly assassinated in 1951. Besides Benazir, 27 party workers were martyred and 98 others injured.
Despite the assassination of its chairman and a former prime minister, neither the Bhutto family nor the PPP became the complainant in the case, forcing the police to assume that role.
The case underwent four separate investigations, including by the United Nations, Britain’s Scotland Yard, the Punjab Police and finally the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). In total, seven statements were filed, 12 judges were changed during the case, 291 interviews were conducted and 57 witnesses were recorded.
During the trial, senior prosecutor Zulfiqar Chaudhry, who prosecuted the case, was himself murdered on a day of hearing. The PPP also produced American journalist Mark Siegel as a witness via video link from the Pakistan High Commission in the UK. However, he failed to adequately respond to rigorous cross-examination by defense lawyers.
Over eight years, the High Court conducted only seven hearings, all limited to procedural adjournments. The hearing judge issued summonses on at least a dozen occasions to PPP leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sanam Bhutto, Bakhtawar Bhutto and Asifa Bhutto. However, the party did not pursue the case from start to finish.
Following the conclusion of the FIA investigation and trial, ATC judge Muhammad Asghar Khan delivered the verdict on 31 August 2017 after a decade-long trial. Five accused, including Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Hasnain, Rifat and Abdul Rashid, arrested by the police, were acquitted and described as scapegoats.
Conversely, former Rawalpindi police officer Saud Aziz and SP Khurram Shehzad were found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in prison each along with fines of Rs 1 million.
Both were arrested and jailed, but later secured bail from the High Court and remain free on bail.
The eighth accused, former president and military ruler Pervez Musharraf, was declared an offender after repeatedly failing to appear. The court issued permanent arrest warrants, ordered the confiscation of his movable and immovable assets, the freezing of bank accounts and his extradition through Interpol.
However, none of the orders were carried out and Musharraf later died in Dubai after a long illness.
After the verdict, three acquitted defendants namely Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman and Hasnain were released.
However, Abdul Rashid remains incarcerated in Adiala Jail even after 18 years and is currently in custody, while the fifth acquitted accused, Rifat, disappeared from the gates of Adiala Jail on his release and remains untraced to this day.
After the verdict, Asif Ali Zardari appealed to the High Court, challenging the acquittal of the five accused and demanding Musharraf’s return to trial, but did not appeal the convictions or sentences of the two police officers.
However, the FIA appealed both the acquittals and the convictions of the police officers. A total of 12 appeals regarding the Benazir Bhutto assassination case are pending at the High Court.
Speaking to this correspondent, senior lawyer Asad Abbasi, representing the PPP’s Benazir Bhutto assassination panel, said the appeals had been pending hearing for far too long and an application for early hearing would be filed immediately after the court holidays.
He promised that the party would not be silent until the killers of Benazir Bhutto were fully exposed. “Justice has been delayed but it has not been extinguished. Benazir Bhutto’s innocent blood will bear fruit,” he said.
