By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has reacted sharply to President Pervez Musharraf’s statement that she was to blame for her own murder as she had exposed herself to terrorists by looking out of her car’s sunroof.
“It is strange that instead of admitting security failure the president is saying that she herself was responsible for her assassination,” PPP information secretary Sherry Rehman told IANS from Noudero.
She added that Musharraf’s admission that she might have died after being hit by a bullet instead of a blow to the head from the sunroof lever as officials had previously claimed showed that authorities were hiding facts.
Musharraf told US television network CBS that Bhutto was at fault for having come out of the sunroof to wave to her supporters Dec 27, moments before she was killed.
“I think she alone is to be blamed. Nobody else. The responsibility is hers,” Musharraf said. He said the Pakistan government is waiting for the report of an inquiry being conducted by a five-member Scotland Yard team.
This is the fourth time that Scotland Yard has been called to Pakistan but it was not allowed to complete its work in any of the previous probes. The first case was in 1951 when then prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated. Security men killed the assailant on the spot.
Later, a Scotland Yard team came to Pakistan in 1988 to probe former military dictator General Zia ul Haq’s death in a mysterious plane crash but was sent back before it could start investigations.
The third time a team came to Pakistan was to probe the death of Benazir’s brother Mir Murataza Bhutto who was killed in a clash with police when she was prime minister in 1996. Again, the Scotland Yard was not allowed to finish its investigations.
“I think the president is now trying to shift responsibility. Mohtarma (Bhutto) is on record having written to him asking permission for international assistance and security which they denied her,” Rehman told IANS.
Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari said Musharraf’s comments are an insult to the party and democracy.
“They have changed stories four times. Why do you think you change stories? Because you have something to hide,” said Zardari.
He also dismissed Musharraf’s claims that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network was behind the attack.
Zardari said: “The Al Qaeda is not standing against us in the election and moreover they have also denied it. Why should we believe the government and not them?”
Zardari, who was in jail on corruption charges till 2004 since the sacking of Bhutto’s government in November 1996, is now the co-chairman of the PPP along with his 19-year-old son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a student of law at Oxford University.