#BenazirBhutto - ‘Disappointing and Unacceptable’

The ten year long Benazir Bhutto murder case has come spluttering to an end, and consistent with its botched, influenced and erratic trial process the judgment is equally fragmented. Two police officers – accused of hosing down the crime scene and otherwise impeding investigation – have been handed town 17 year sentences for negligence. The main accused, former President Pervez Musharraf has been declared a ‘fugitive’ and the seizure of his properties ordered. The five Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) suspects have curiously all been released.

The differing fate of all the parties in this trial only goes to show how partial the process was. The judge hearing the trial was changed eight times and the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) special prosecutor gunned down in 2013 – despite this, and perhaps because of this, the court granted Pervez Musharraf bail, and eventually he was even taken off the Exit Control List, paving his way to a well appointed exile. The court declaring him a fugitive and issuing arrest warrant in his name is a futile exercise now, it might as well scream at the wind to bring him back. Convicting him is a separate issue, the state agencies and the justice system could not even make the former military dictator face trial. A the moment there is nothing to doubt the legal basis on which this sentence was handed out, but as an exercise of the rule of law, this case has been appalling.

Billawal Bhutto is correct in condemning the outcome as “disappointing and unacceptable”; justice was not done. However he must know that a large part of this trial was conducted while Pakistan People’s Party was in power, with his father – and Benazir’s husband – at the helm. If the prosecution was influenced and intimidated, or the police failed to lay down the basic investigative framework on which the prosecution would be built, then it is also the fault of his party.

Of course, the trial may be over, but the case will probably still continue. The option to appeal the release of the five TTP suspects is being mulled, and Musharraf’s case still hangs in the balance. The convictions for the two police officers have only confirmed the existence of foul play.

The former dictator has boasted about his bravery and his willing to come back and face trial but all that seems like bluster at the moment. Declaring him a fugitive may generate pressure on him, but it seems unlikely it will make him return. Instead we would be listening to a declared fugitive’s comments on national television and interviews to foreign publications.

The pressure on the government to muzzle Pervez Musharraf – the way it did Altaf Hussain – will only grow larger. In the absence of providing a free and fair trial, it is the least they can do.