News
Thursday, May 06, 2010
‘BB murder report is politically motivated’* Indian legal expert says document lacks sanction of UN Security Council
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: AG Noorani, India’s top legal and constitutional expert, on Wednesday described the UN commission report on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto as a “pack of incompetent investigation” and a “politically motivated” document lacking the sanction of the UN Security Council.
“The commission was working on an agenda set by others and zealously executed it in a command performance. It sought to please both Islamabad and Washington, but ended up exposing itself,” said Noorani, adding that by their “foolish exertions, the investigating team has tarnished the name of the UN”.
He charged the report with lacking transparency and violating its own terms of reference and the settled rules of natural justice and fair play. “It is demeaning to those who initiated the process and to those who responded and produced a patently political inquiry document on a terrible tragedy which demanded a thorough professional probe,” he said.
Noorani noted that the appointment of the UN commission had slowed criminal investigations into the assassination.
He noted that the appointment of the UN commission had slowed criminal investigation into the assassination. “The commission’s effort to determine the facts and circumstances of Benazir’s assassination is not a substitute for an effective, official criminal investigation. These activities should have been carried out simultaneously,” he said.
Noorani questioned whether any purpose was achieved by handing over investigations to the UN, which not only allowed foreign sleuths to roam around the country but also lowered the morale of police.
Noorani asked what the purpose was achieved by handing over investigations to the UN, which “not only allowed foreign sleuths to roam around the country, but also lowered the morale of police”. He asked if the investigators had been vetted and if there was any guarantee that the men were not CIA agents.
“This being the case, what precisely did the politician in Zardari, now at the apex of power, seek to accomplish by this unprecedented probe, which allowed foreign sleuths to roam all over the country undermining the morale of the police force and was hurtful to the pride of a proud nation? Were the commission members vetted?” he added.
“The UN secretary general had not sought mandate from the UN Security Council for appointing the commission. He had merely informed the president of the UNSC, which does not enjoy any power, that the entire operation was conducted without the sanction of a resolution by the council – unlike all the three previous inquiries into deaths,” he maintained.
Referring to the “incompetence” of the investigators, Noorani quoted a passage from the report that said, “CPO Saud Aziz did not act independently and everyone knows who ordered the hosing down of the crime scene.”
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk