By Gurmukh Singh, IANS
Toronto : Calling Benazir Bhutto’s murder an attempt to “sabotage the possibility of democracy” in Pakistan, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (Sansad), a group of intellectuals, academics and activists of South Asian origin in Canada, has demanded a judicial investigation into the killing.
In a statement, Sansad said the judicial probe should be led by ousted Pakistan chief justice Iftikar Choudhury to have credibility in the eyes of the international community.
“We support the demand of the people in Pakistan that a judicial inquiry commission, led by three judges and headed by the deposed Chief Justice Iftikar Choudhury, be formed to investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” it said.
Sansad, which has fought for the rights of South Asian immigrant workers in Canada for years, said Bhutto’s assassination was a tragic loss for democratic forces in the sub-continent. “We join her family and the entire Pakistan in grieving for this terrible loss to their families, their political party, and the nation.”
Praising Bhutto for her courage in plunging into an uncertain situation, Sansad said she stepped into “a US-sponsored process of transition to democracy from the de facto rule of the military that was compromised by this very sponsorship as well as by the restrictions of freedom and the suspension of proper judicial authority that prevailed.”
She ignited the hope for democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan which has been in the clutches of a military dictatorship for eight years now, said Sansad, warning that the military dictatorship might use her murder as a pretext “to continue de jure or de facto military rule in Pakistan as the only way to contain terrorism.
“Already, the immediate finger-pointing by the government at Baitullah Mehsud and al-Qaeda (rejected by Mehsud), along with its denial that Bhutto was killed by assassin’s bullets, point in the direction of the government covering up its responsibility. It is only one more step from here to the argument that only the present regime can fight the West’s proxy war in Pakistan and defend the Pakistan people from terror.”
Urging the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to use its leader’s death as a means to uniting Pakistanis in their fight for democracy, Sansad said, “We hope that this enormous loss to the people of Pakistan will become a means of bringing them together in the struggle for peace, democracy, the rule of law, and a genuinely independent polity free from Western domination and interference.”