When the Musharraf government declared Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud the mastermind of the attack that killed Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27, 2007, her followers and many in Pakistan reacted with angry disbelief. In the weeks before her assassination, Bhutto had more or less openly accused several politicians close to President Musharraf of conspiring to murder her.

In the weeks after Bhutto's murder, many other questions were raised: Was it really a suicide bomb that killed Benazir Bhutto, or was she shot? Why was the scene of the crime hosed down immediately afterwards and possible evidence destroyed? Even an investigation by Scotland Yard that confirmed some of the government's explanations could not remove the doubts.

Zardari's confusing remarks

The current president of Pakistan and Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has contributed his own share to the confusion surrounding his wife's assassination, not least by refusing an autopsy. Zardari immediately said he knew her killers.

The retired general Talat Masood said, "He has been saying all sorts of things! So if he knew, what was the point in taking up the case with the UN and also not disclosing it to the people of Pakistan and to his own party and to everyone else?”

The question arises why Pakistan cannot simply investigate the murder itself, given that Benazir Bhutto's Party, the PPP, is ruling the country. Some observers believe the president, as Benazir's political heir, wants to boost his legitimacy by highlighting her murder on the international stage.

"We don't want this case to be left just to the local police in Rawalpindi," Zardari said recently. "We want this inquiry also for history. We want that the verdict is remembered in history, and that it is remembered that such a leader was born who left such followers behind who have taken her name, this inquiry, her ideas and her words to the national stage.”

Possible army-Taliban nexus

But Rana Jawad, a senior Pakistani journalist, said there is another way to explain why Zardari and his party want an international investigation: "I think they do want to clear themselves from any charges that it was a PPP government, hence the investigations were biased and they fixed their political opponents to settle scores."

Jawad said the current political regime wanted the United Nations to conclude that at the time of Bhutto's assassination a section of the military was in collusion with Baitullah Mehsud-led Taliban groups.

Should the commission indeed come up with such a finding, it would cause a major political earthquake. And although the Pakistani army has been locked in heavy battles with Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban over the last few months, it is unclear to what extent the army would be ready to have former links between the military and the extremists exposed.

Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz will head the team. The other members are Indonesia's former attorney general Marzuki Darusman and Irishman Peter Fitzgerald, who led the UN investigation into the murder of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The UN commission, which has a mandate for six months, is expected to visit Pakistan for the first time in the third week of July.

Author: Thomas Bärthlein
Editor: Disha Uppal / Kate Bowen