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| India-Pakistan |
| Benazir murder case: Court questions PPP leaders ‘disappearance’ from Liaquat Bagh |
| 2017-08-26 |
| [DAWN] The ’sudden disappearance’ of Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. , Babar Awan and others from Liaquat Bagh came under discussion during a hearing of the Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... murder case at a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday. ATC Judge Asghar Ali Khan asked Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Special Prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz why Mr Malik, Mr Awan and others who were sitting in Bhutto’s backup vehicle, rushed to Zardari House before her vehicle had left the venue. According to the testimonies of several prosecution witnesses, including senior coppers, the backup vehicle ‐ a bulletproof Mercedes ‐ was included in the slain PPP leader’s convoy for emergencies. The prosecutor told the court that in addition to Mr Malik and Mr Awan, Farhatullah Babar and retired Lt Gen Tauqeer Zia were also in the backup vehicle. He told the court that the joint investigation team (JIT) that conducted an investigation under the PPP regime did not list the passengers of the backup vehicle. When asked by the ATC judge, the prosecutor disclosed on Thursday that of the around dozen passengers from Bhutto’s vehicle and the backup car, only two had testified before the court under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). He said that since the backup vehicle had already left the venue before Bhutto was assassinated, in their initial statements before the investigation team, the passengers of the backup vehicle had stated that they did not know anything about the incident since they were not present at the scene at the time. When the judge asked why the backup vehicle left the venue in such haste, the prosecutor said that they were supposed to make arrangements for Bhutto at Zardari House in Islamabad, ahead of her arrival. "[The passengers of the backup car] said they had rushed to Zardari House to open it for Benazir; was not any staff or servant available in Zardari House to perform such a job?" the judge asked. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the prosecutor could not respond to this question. To another query regarding the number of people sitting in the vehicle designated for Bhutto, the prosecutor listed then-senior superintendent of police (SSP) retired Maj Imtiaz Hussain, Naheed Khan and Safdar Abbasi, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, as well as Khalid Shehenshah, Razzaq Mirani, and the driver Javed Rehman. Of these, the prosecution listed only Maj Hussain and the driver as witnesses. |
| Posted by:Fred |