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Benazir to be tried in absentia for '96 killing

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be tried in absentia for the 1996 killing of two Jamaat-i-Islami activists. People's Party of Pakistan vice-chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani told newpersons in Multan that Bhutto had no plans of returning to Pakistan in the near future to stand trial in the case registered by the Rawalpindi police at the direction of the supreme court.

The PPP will contest in court the murder charges brought against its chairperson and two other top party leaders, he said. A defence committee comprising Aitzaz Ahsan and Iqbal Haider has been constituted to handle the legal proceedings, a Dawn report quoted him as saying. The former prime minister went into exile last year to evade arrest following her conviction on several counts of corruption. She has already been declared a proclaimed offender by the new military rulers.

Her husband, Asif Zardari, a member of the suspended senate, is already in jail for alleged involvement in the killing of Murtaza Bhutto who died in police firing while leading a protest against his sister's government. Gilani declined comment on the institution of the murder case saying, ''we will defend it in a court of law.'' The Rawalpindi police were last week directed by an apex court bench to register a first information report and launch criminal proceedings against Bhutto, her former interior minister Naseerullah Babar, former Punjab chief minister Arif Nakai and three top district officials in the double murder.

Ironically, Bhutto's father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq for complicity in the murder of a political opponent. Gilani said the PPP was struggling for the restoration of true democracy in the country through free, fair and transparent elections under the supervision of an independent election commission. He said the PPP would explain its point of view regarding the restoration of democracy if the chief executive called them for a dialogue.

UNI

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