Experts say Bhutto's medical report fraught with lacunae

ISLAMABAD: The medical report of slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, a crucial evidence in the probe into her assassination, is fraught with lacunae and a proof that the doctors acted "unprofessionally", experts have said, with some even suggesting foul play.

Mian Rashid, a professor of forensic medicine and member of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, was of the view that the depressed wound referred to in the report was actually the "point of exit" of the bullet that hit Bhutto after a rally in Rawalpindi on Dec 27.

"Since the report says that whitish brain matter was coming out, it can only happen at point of exit," Rashid told the influential Dawn newspaper.

He was also of the view that the depressed wound has been "grossly misinterpreted" by the doctors.

Rashid said the doctors who attended to Bhutto omitted the point of entry of the bullet as they "skipped the standard procedure for examining such wounds".

Senior medico-legal expert Zaman Niazi said the report contained alarming technical lapses and was "prima facie a case of foul play".

He said the report was "just half-truth" and an attempt to conceal the other half.

Niazi based his contentions on the absence of the casualty medical officer (CMO) from the list of seven doctors of Rawalpindi General Hospital who signed the report, which was released a day after the assassination of Bhutto.

Other experts also questioned the absence of a forensic expert from the team that wrote the report.

The CMO is the "initiator" of such reports since he is the doctor who receives the patient in the emergency ward and is the most competent person to write the report, Niazi told.

Bhutto was rushed to the hospital after she was attacked following a rally at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. While the government has claimed that she died after her head hit the sunroof of her vehicle, Bhutto's party claims that she was shot dead.

Arif Malik, professor of neuro-surgery of Rawalpindi General Hospital, too is absent from the list of signatories of the report. Malik said he did not sign the report because "he is a treating doctor and not a medico-legal expert to write such reports".

The description of Bhutto's wounds in the report is also "inappropriate", Niazi said. The standard depiction of wounds requires the length, breadth and depth of injuries to be mentioned.

However, in Bhutto's case, the panel of doctors who wrote the report stated that the wound on the right side of her skull measured 5x3cm but did not specify other parameters.

Other doctors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, criticised the explanation of the position of the wound.

The report said the wound was just above the pinna of the right ear, but medico-legal experts said that the exact position should have been indicated in relation to some fixed point on the skull.

Rawalpindi Medical College Principal, Mussadiq Khan, who led the team of doctors that wrote the report, was contacted by Dawn but did not respond.

The medico-legal experts said the doctors could have done a much better job while writing the report by simply sticking to basics like "mentioning the precise nature of injuries, description of wounds and kind of weapon (bullet, shrapnel or other possible object)".

Such a detailed report could have compensated the need for an autopsy which Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari had refused, leaving investigators to rely on the "inconclusive" report prepared by the doctors.