Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari had allowed safe exit to Pervez Musharraf, named by the former’s deceased wife Benazir Bhutto as her would-be assassin, under an international deal.
Zardari, who took over as president from Musharraf last year, conceded this at a recent Iftaar meeting with media persons. To many, the admission explains why the Benazir murder case has gone on the backburner despite a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government in the country and the elevation of Zardari as president.
Addressing his first press conference after Benazir’s murder, Zardari had made public her October 20, 2007, email to Wolf Blitzer of the CNN, naming her would-be assassin. The email said: “If it is God’s will, nothing will happen to me. But if anything happened to me, I would hold Pervez Musharraf responsible.’’
Blitzer received the email from Mark Siegel, a friend and long-time Washington spokesman for Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life in Karachi after her homecoming on October 18, 2007.
She had pointed out that there was no improvement in her security and she was being prevented from using private cars or vehicles equipped with tinted windows. She also said she had not been provided with signal jammers to prevent remote controlled bombs, or with police mobile outriders to cover her vehicle on all sides.
According to Mark Siegel, Benazir had asked permission to bring in trained security personnel from abroad. In fact, she and her husband repeatedly tried to get visas for such protection but the Pakistani government did not oblige.
Siegel said a US-based security agency, Blackwater, and a London-based firm, ArmorGroup, which guards British diplomats in the Middle East, were not allowed to protect Benazir. She urged Musharraf to improve her security after the Karachi suicide attack, besides requesting American and British diplomats to pressurise him in providing adequate security to her. But Musharraf never listened.
Zardari had at the media conference said: “This email should be treated as shaheed Benazir’s dying declaration.”
