Benazir murder probe: Pak yet to act against indicted bigwigs

Islamabad, Apr.24 (ANI): It has been more than a week since the UN commission's enquiry report over former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination was published, but the Pakistan Government is yet to take any action against bigwigs held responsible for her murder.

The UN probe report indicted several top officials who served during General Pervez Musharraf's regime, including the then Military Imtelligence Director General Nadim Ejaz, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Ejaz Shah and also incumbent Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan, but barring some action on a few officials, there have hardly been any noticeable step initiated by the government against the big fish.

The government has put names of a bunch of 'scapegoats' in the Exit Control List (ECL), but is mum on acting against high notch officials and ministers.

Interestingly, influential officials named in the UN report appear assure of no action from the government against them. Former interior secretary Kamal Shah, who has been indicted for not providing fool-proof security to Bhutto during her election rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, is roaming free.

Shah, who is considered to be a regular visitor to the Presidency, is hoping for the prized slot of governor of the newly-named Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North West Frontier Province), The News reports.

But what can be described as an ultimate bluff to the UN, Malik, who was Bhutto's chief security adviser and had ran away from the crime scene on December 27, 2007, the day Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack, he has been given special benefits of backdated retirement with full honours despite the that he has been already dismissed from the service. (ANI)