BB’s protocol officer seeks joint team to unmask killers

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Aamir Yasin
Thursday, 22 Apr, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam, who was chief protocol officer of Ms Benazir Bhutto, has urged the government to form a joint investigation team comprising personnel of all law-enforcement agencies to unveil the conspiracy behind her murder.

Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club here on Wednesday, he said that Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan should step down and present themselves before the investigation team and provide all information about the assassination of the former prime minister.

“They (Rehman Malik and Babar Awan) consider themselves to be stalwarts of the PPP and it is their duty to provide all information to a joint investigation team to help them arrest perpetrators of the crime,” he said.

Chaudhry Aslam said he had already mentioned in his petition that the back-up Mercedez-Benz car had left earlier than Ms Bhutto’s convoy.

He said that after receiving the UN Commission report, it was the duty of the government to start an investigation.

He was accompanied by Advocate Asad Rajput who said he had already filed a petition before the Lahore High Court seeking registration of a second FIR against former president Pervez Musharraf, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, former IB chief Syed Ijaz Hussain Shah, two serving ministers and eight high-ranking police and administration officers for their alleged involvement in the assassination.

Chaudhry Aslam accused the then interior minister Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz, Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, then Rawalpindi DCO Irfan Ellahi, CPO Saud Aziz, SSP (Operation) Yaseen Farooq and Rawal Town SP Khurram Shahzad, of being directly or indirectly involved in the conspiracy against Ms Bhutto.

Advocate Asad Rajput said the government could arrest former president Pervez Musharraf through Interpol or under extradition treaties with different countries.

He said that Chaudhry Aslam, being a victim of the incident, could lodge an FIR of the incident, because it was not necessary for a legal heir to do it.