Plenty of Blame To Assign
In addition to assigning primary responsibility to the Musharraf administration, the commission concludes that there is plenty of blame to go around all of the players involved in Benazir Bhutto's security. The report says that Pakistan suffers from deep, long-standing and systematic problems in terms of the lack of basic professionalism, and the absence of overall competence at all levels of the government. Along with the incompetence and unprofessional conduct of the officials, the report also finds that "the PPP’s security for Ms Bhutto was characterized by a lack of direction and professionalism". Mr. Rehman Malik, the man in charge of Benazir Bhutto's security, is now in charge of Pakistan's internal security as the country's interior minister since 2008, in the midst of the worst ever carnage unfolding on the nation's street.
The UN commission report expresses its dismay at the absence of any serious investigation into her death by her own party's government headed by her widower during the last two years. It says, "Ms Bhutto was killed more than two years ago. A government headed by her party, the PPP, has been in office for most of that time, and it only began the further investigation, a renewal of the stalled official investigation in October 2009. This is surprising to the Commission."
Tension Between PPP and Police
The report suggests that there was tension between police and the PPP workers when the police struggled to control a mass of PPP members attempting to climb on the stage at Liaquat Bagh on the day of the Bhutto murder. The Commission finds that the police were indeed passive in their security role after the scuffle with some of the PPP members on securing the stage. The commission "believes it was unprofessional if the Rawalpindi District Police reduced their level of alert to any degree as a result of wounded pride".
Benazir Bhutto's Responsibility
The commission members hold Benazir Bhutto at least partially responsible for ignoring the advice of Major Imtiaz who was assigned by the Musharraf government as a security officer to be with her at all times. She also disregarded warnings from the ISI chief about risks to her life at Liaquat Bagh. The report says that Major Imtiaz "advised Ms Bhutto on her own security responsibilities. He noted that he had advised her many times not to expose herself by standing through the escape hatch of her armoured car to wave to the crowds, but she would usually ignore his advice and sometimes express anger at being told what to do. On the day of her assassination, Major Imtiaz did not advise Ms Bhutto not to stand up through the escape hatch." However, the report says that the then intelligence chief General Nadeem Taj "met with Ms Bhutto in the early morning hours of 27 December at Zardari House in Islamabad" and "urged her to limit her public exposure and to keep a low profile at the campaign event at Liaquat Bagh later that day".
Pakistan's History of Political Assassinations
The report recognizes that the Bhutto assassination on December 27, 2007, was not the first in Pakistan's history of political assassinations which have remained unsolved. The report puts it as follows:
"Ms Bhutto’s assassination was not the first time in Pakistan’s brief national history that a major political figure had been killed or died in an untimely fashion. The country’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated in 1951 in the same park where Ms Bhutto was assassinated; the assassin was killed by police on the spot, but broader responsibilities, including who might have been behind the killing have never been established. Ms Bhutto’s father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, president of Pakistan from 1971-73 and prime minister from 1973-77, was deposed in a military coup in 1977, charged with the murder of a political opponent’s father and hanged in 1979. Many believe that the judicial process against Mr Bhutto was deeply flawed and politically-motivated. Later, General Zia ul Haq, the military leader who deposed Mr Bhutto and ruled Pakistan for 11 years, died in a plane crash together with the United States Ambassador to Pakistan in 1988; investigations by the United States and Pakistan into the crash came to conflicting conclusions, and it remains the object of much speculation. Other killings of political figures that have never been solved include the deaths of Ms Bhutto’s two brothers, Shahnawaz, who was killed in France in 1985 and Murtaza, killed in Pakistan in 1997. The list continues to grow, more recently with the killings, among others, of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a 79-year old Balochi nationalist leader in a military operation in August 2006 and three other Balochi nationalist leaders in April 2009, including Ghulam Mohammed Baloch."
Botched CSI or Cover-up?
The report specifically refers to the botched crime scene investigation (CSI) after the assassination. “The collection of 23 pieces of evidence was manifestly inadequate in a case that should have resulted in thousands,” it said. “The one instance in which the authorities reviewed these actions, the Punjab (provincial) committee of inquiry into the hosing down of the crime scene was a whitewash. Hosing down the crime scene so soon after the blast goes beyond mere incompetence; it is up to the relevant authorities to determine whether this amounts to criminal responsibility.”
While UN commission sees the hosing down of the crime scene "soon after the blast" as "whitewash", any cursory look at the standard CSI practice in hundreds of murder cases in Pakistan would suggest otherwise. In a post on this subject back in January, 2008, here is what I wrote:
"There is a total lack of professionalism in the way the law-enforcement agencies in Pakistan go about their business. Even a cursory review by a lay person who has watched CSI:Miami or other US police shows on TV can see that no established crime scene procedures are understood or followed in Pakistan. The police do not immediately seal off the crime scenes. The police do not take time to carefully collect and preserve crime scene evidence such as detailed pictures, sketches, weapons, bullet fragments, explosives residues, blood swatches, fibers, vehicles etc. The police do not immediately contact the people present in the vicinity, interrogate them professionally and record their statements. They do not order an immediate autopsy in murder cases. They let the media and even ordinary folks just walk into the crime scene, disturb it and take pictures etc. They order that the crime scene be hosed down as quickly as possible even before it is scrutinized adequately for clues."
Corruption, Incompetence of Police Force
"The Contours of Police Integrity" by Carl Klockars, et al, talks about the lack of professionalism among Pakistani police officials as follows:
"The causes of police misconduct in Pakistani society are deeply embedded in the country's socioeconomic and political structure. To begin with, the society is highly tolerant of corruption in general, as indicated by Transparency International....A police officer is expected to posses a high degree of intelligence and the interpersonal skills required to exercise in enforcing the law. However, the level required of the constables, who (together with head constables) comprise 89% of the police force (Chaudhry, 1997, p. 101), is matriculation or even less. Such educational requirements have created a situation in which the majority of the police force have a low level of education. The education of a typical constable can not support the the demands of the job; the constable is therefore someone who is trained to serve as a mechanical functionary obeying the orders of those more senior rather than an officer using personal judgment to solve policing issues....Both police officers' importance as members of government apparatus and their influence as a result of their estimated illegal income make policing such an attractive profession that people are willing to pay any price to get their dear ones positions in the police force. Politicians attach such importance to police service that even the members of National Assembly get their close relatives (such as sons and brothers) inducted into the police service as deputy superintendent of police-by direct notification of the prime minister and without any exam or procedure."
In what Newsweek recently called "transfer industry" in South Asia, the bribe-rich police precincts ( called thanas) in Pakistan are "sold" to the highest bidder to become the station house officer (SHO or thanedar), who then has a "license" to recoup what the appointee paid and make additional "profit" for himself and his superiors. Such appointments encourage continuing massive corruption and incompetence in the police departments.
The fact is that a large number of police officers are recruited because of their political connections rather than their competence. It is hard to expect such a police force to be either professional or competent, as has been demonstrated time and again in a recent spate of violence, including political assassinations such as Benazir Bhutto's.
The three-member UN panel, led by Chilean Ambassador to UN Heraldo Muñoz and included Marzuki Darusman, former attorney-general of Indonesia, and Peter Fitzgerald, a veteran official of the Irish National Police, has urged the Government of Pakistan to undertake police reform in view of its “deeply flawed performance and conduct.”
Need For Truth, Reconciliation and Reform
Instead of engaging in media spin to politicize the Commission's report to settle political scores, the PPP government should immediately begin in earnest the long overdue process to change the culture of corruption, incompetence and impunity.
The report recommends the establishment of a fully independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate political killings, disappearances and terrorism in Pakistan in recent years in view of the backdrop of a history of political violence carried out with impunity.
The first serious police reform effort since independence was launched during the Musharraf years that was widely applauded, even embraced briefly by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif until it caught the eye of the Musharraf critics. The draft of Pakistan Police Ordinance 2001 was aimed at organizing a police system, which is “independently controlled, politically neutral, non-authoritarian, people friendly and professionally efficient.” Even though the text of the 2001 Ordinance has been significantly altered since then, first by the Police Order of 2002 and then by the Police Order (Amendment) Ordinance of 2004, the initiative still retains a fairly good blueprint for police reforms. It is as of now referred to as the Police Order 2002. Unfortunately, there has been no progress on it in the last few years.
Unfortunately, the hopes of reform in Pakistan are already being dismissed by key officials. “I have witnessed history in my country for the last 60 years and nothing is ever taken to conclusion,” Pakistan's UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said in an interview with Businessweek. “We have had great trauma in Pakistan that did not lead to reform.”
Hope For the Future
Talking about her husband and current president Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto reportedly told senator and family friend Dr. Abdullah Riar that "Time will prove he is the Nelson Mandela of Pakistan". Let us see if Zardari can live up to his late wife's expectations of him by taking the UN advice on launching a South African style "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" in Pakistan.
Related Links:
Zardari: Nelson Mandela of Pakistan?
CSI: Pakistan?
Police Reform in Pakistan
Reforming Police in South Asia
Intelligence Failures Amidst Daily Carnage in Pakistan
Incompetence Worse Than Corruption in Pakistan
CSI Training in Pakistan
UN Report on Bhutto Assassination
The Contours of Police Integrity
