RAWALPINDI: The head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing into the Benazir Bhutto murder case, former FIA additional director general Mohammad Khalid Qureshi said the team had not investigated those who were nominated by the slain prime minister in a “declaration” before her assassination.

During a cross examination on Wednesday before an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, Mr Qureshi said that the JIT had not investigated the former director-general Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) retired Lt-Gen Hamid Gul, former director-general Intelligence Bureau (IB) retired Brig Ejaz Shah and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who were nominated by the former prime minister in a letter she wrote to US lobbyist Mark Siegel in 2007.

When Malik Rafique, counsel for the accused deputy inspector general (DIG) Said Aziz and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Khurram Shahzad, asked Mr Qureshi whether he had examined those nominated by Benazir, the JIT chief replied in negative.

The defence counsel also disclosed before the court that Mr Qureshi was a member of the Punjab Police JIT which had conducted the initial probe.

The investigation into the murder is divided into two phases. Soon after Benazir’s assassination, the then PML-Q government formed an investigation team headed by the additional inspector general of Punjab of which Mr Qureshi was a member.

The team arrested five suspects who were said to have belonged to the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

When the PPP formed its government after the February 2008 elections, the interior ministry assigned the investigation to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Mr Qureshi was appointed head of the FIA’s JIT.

FIA’s investigation team conducted a second inquiry and implicated former president Musharraf, DIG Saud and SSP Shahzad in the case on account of washing the crime scene to destroy evidence and not providing adequate security to the former prime minister.

The JIT report also held Mr Aziz responsible for not conducting a postmortem on Benazir’s body.

However, during the cross examination, when the defence counsel asked Mr Qureshi whether he watched the press conference held by former president Asif Ali Zardari after the assassination, in which he said that he had not given permission for the postmortem because he did not want the body of his wife to be “desecrated”, Mr Qureshi said he had not watched the press conference.

When asked if the JIT head had tried to ask Mr Zardari about why he had not allowed the postmortem, Mr Qureshi said he had never approached the former president in this regard.

After the cross examination, the ATC adjourned the trial till May 16 and directed the prosecution to submit a report regarding the closing of evidence.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2016