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Arresting Musharraf while talking to the Taliban will not solve Pakistan's problems
By Rob Crilly World Last updated: August 20th, 2013
15 Comments Comment on this article
Pervez Musharraf (right) has been charged with murder of Benazir Bhutto. (Photo: AFP/Getty)
So Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military ruler, has been charged with the murder of Benazir Bhutto. And in so doing the country's judicial system and investigators have reminded us of their myopia, unable to come to terms with the real threat facing the country and intent instead on chasing shadows.
Here are the facts we can agree on: Mrs Bhutto, two-time prime minister of Pakistan, was killed in December 2007 as she left a campaign rally. Pervez Musharraf was president at the time.
Almost everything else is in dispute.
Scotland Yard detectives called in to help with the murder concluded Mrs Bhutto had died from severe head injuries caused by a bomb blast – but their findings were rejected by many of Mrs Bhutto's supporters who claimed there were multiple attackers and that she died from gun shot wounds.
The clues that might have helped piece together what happened were hosed away in the aftermath of the attack. Cock-up or cover-up?
And communications intercepts, which seemed to catch the then head of the Pakistan Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, discussing "a tremendous effort" are routinely dismissed as part of a conspiracy to protect the real culprits.
Two police officers and five alleged Taliban militants have been charged over Mrs Bhutto's death, but none has yet been brought to trial.
And that's the way it might have stayed.
Although a United Nations investigation accused the government of negligence and of failing to offer adequate protection to Mrs Bhutto , there had never been a concerted attempt to bring Mr Musharraf to justice. Until two years ago, that is, when he announced his attention to return from self-imposed exile to Pakistan in order to fight elections this year. That's when it all changed.
No new evidence has come to light. There's no smoking gun. No suggestion he deliberately undercooked security on the day. No record of phone calls ordering the site be hosed down.
The case looks more and more political, particularly when you consider that Mr Musharraf finds himself in a country led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he ousted in a coup in 1999, and where the chief justice is still Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the man who did more than anyone to end the military strongman's time in power
Meanwhile, Mr Sharif is talking up the prospect of peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban – the very people who almost certainly were responsible for Mrs Bhutto's murder.
The indictment of Mr Musharraf on these charges is also an indictment of a failing judicial system, in a country that lacks the capacity to properly investigate the murder of a former prime minister, let alone any of the almost daily terrorist attacks.
Locking up Mr Musharraf – a staunch ally of the West in the aftermath of 9/11 – while talking to the Taliban is no answer to Pakistan's problems.
Read more by Rob Crilly on Telegraph Blogs
By Rob Crilly World Last updated: August 20th, 2013
15 Comments Comment on this article
Pervez Musharraf (right) has been charged with murder of Benazir Bhutto. (Photo: AFP/Getty)
So Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military ruler, has been charged with the murder of Benazir Bhutto. And in so doing the country's judicial system and investigators have reminded us of their myopia, unable to come to terms with the real threat facing the country and intent instead on chasing shadows.
Here are the facts we can agree on: Mrs Bhutto, two-time prime minister of Pakistan, was killed in December 2007 as she left a campaign rally. Pervez Musharraf was president at the time.
Almost everything else is in dispute.
Scotland Yard detectives called in to help with the murder concluded Mrs Bhutto had died from severe head injuries caused by a bomb blast – but their findings were rejected by many of Mrs Bhutto's supporters who claimed there were multiple attackers and that she died from gun shot wounds.
The clues that might have helped piece together what happened were hosed away in the aftermath of the attack. Cock-up or cover-up?
And communications intercepts, which seemed to catch the then head of the Pakistan Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, discussing "a tremendous effort" are routinely dismissed as part of a conspiracy to protect the real culprits.
Two police officers and five alleged Taliban militants have been charged over Mrs Bhutto's death, but none has yet been brought to trial.
And that's the way it might have stayed.
Although a United Nations investigation accused the government of negligence and of failing to offer adequate protection to Mrs Bhutto , there had never been a concerted attempt to bring Mr Musharraf to justice. Until two years ago, that is, when he announced his attention to return from self-imposed exile to Pakistan in order to fight elections this year. That's when it all changed.
No new evidence has come to light. There's no smoking gun. No suggestion he deliberately undercooked security on the day. No record of phone calls ordering the site be hosed down.
The case looks more and more political, particularly when you consider that Mr Musharraf finds himself in a country led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he ousted in a coup in 1999, and where the chief justice is still Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the man who did more than anyone to end the military strongman's time in power
Meanwhile, Mr Sharif is talking up the prospect of peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban – the very people who almost certainly were responsible for Mrs Bhutto's murder.
The indictment of Mr Musharraf on these charges is also an indictment of a failing judicial system, in a country that lacks the capacity to properly investigate the murder of a former prime minister, let alone any of the almost daily terrorist attacks.
Locking up Mr Musharraf – a staunch ally of the West in the aftermath of 9/11 – while talking to the Taliban is no answer to Pakistan's problems.
Read more by Rob Crilly on Telegraph Blogs
