The high-powered three-member committee formed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the hosing down of the crime scene where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December raises a number of questions.
First, the washing away of evidence was bizarre, but it has to be seen in the context of abysmal Pakistani investigating standards. Crime scenes here are rarely handled properly. Second, the Bhutto commission report's authors have themselves acted in a rather peculiar manner. Without naming sources, or by relying on anonymous sources, the commission pieced together a theory in which the top cop in Rawalpindi ordered the hosing down of the crime scene upon receiving the order to do so from up above, specifically the MI chief.
Third, it's not clear what the latest, local committee will achieve. It's quite likely that all those called to give statements before the commission will give conflicting accounts or even absolve all the accused of any wrongdoing. Either way, it's unlikely that the commission will be able to dispel the very real, and warranted, doubts of many Pakistanis. Perhaps what is needed is a two-pronged strategy one, a senior judicial commission to investigate the claims made in the Bhutto commission report; and two, a very high-level police investigation team to determine criminal liability for the numerous crimes that have been committed in the circumstances surrounding Ms Bhutto's death.
What is relatively clear at this stage is that the army top brass itself has been unsettled by the grave allegations against a serving officer, the former MI chief, and wants the air cleared. Perhaps this is the real reason for the three-member committee being constituted by the prime minister. In addition to what the committee determines in the final analysis, it will also be interesting to see if it sheds any light on who the MI chief was in fact reporting to during the events of December 2007 — his former boss and relative, the 'civilian' president Gen Musharraf, or his de jure boss and the new army chief, Gen Kayani. The Bhutto commission has poured fuel on the fires of rumour that have long suggested a dark role played by the intelligence agencies hiding in the background. Pakistanis deserve to know more so that they can separate fact from conjecture.
A final word on a related issue. The goings-on in the back-up limousine detailed by the Bhutto commission have given rise to fevered speculation but the PPP high command has itself remained tight-lipped on the issue. Perhaps the PPP leadership should consider clearing the air on that front too.
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