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Musharraf responsible for BBâ€™s murderâ€™

18 April 2010 03:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Basing their conclusions on a report unveiled by a UN inquiry commission, central leaders of the Pakistan Peopleâ€™s Party (PPP) have held former president Pervez Musharraf responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, as he â€œfailedâ€ to provide the former prime minister the required security cover, APA reports quoting Dailytimes.com.pk web-page.

A meeting of the core group of the PPP â€“ which was presided over by Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and attended by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani â€“ was held at the Presidency to discuss the UN report.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that in light of the UN commission report, â€œthere is no doubtâ€ that Musharraf was responsible for Benazirâ€™s murder and would have to face legal proceedings.

Babar said the UN commissionâ€™s report had, in fact, endorsed the partyâ€™s position that Musharraf wanted to â€œeliminate herâ€.

â€œThe PPP has reiterated its resolve to ... bring to justice all those, including Musharraf ... involved in the criminal act,â€ he said.

Legal action: Babar said the core committee of the party had asked the prime minister to take appropriate legal action in light of the report â€“ which calls on the authorities to determine criminal responsibility for planning and carrying out the assassination.

Party sources told Daily Times that it had been decided to launch stern administrative and legal action against all government officials who failed to provide security to Benazir. The party also decided to launch departmental action against officials responsible for providing security to Benazir in and around Liaqat Bagh on December 27, 2007.

However, no consensus could be reached on the role of other political personalities mentioned in the UN report, which include Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Rehman Malik. A final decision may likely be made at the next meeting of the committee.

The sources confirmed that action would be sought against then Punjab home secretary Khusro Pervaiz, then Rawalpindi DCO Irfan Elahi, then Rawalpindi CPO Saud Aziz, then IB director general Brig (r) Ejaz Shah, then federal interior secretary Kamal Shah, Major Imtiaz and others.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has been asked to put the names of these officials on the ECL, while the establishment secretary has been asked to transfer to the OSD pool all officials nominated in the report.