PPP senator wants passengers of Benazir’s backup car to be questioned

ISLAMABAD - A senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator wants investigators to question Law Minister Babar Awan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar and Lt Gen (r) Tauqeer Zia about driving away in a backup car from the site of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

According to various accounts, no vehicle was available at the site to take Benazir to hospital after the assassin had targeted her, and she had to be driven to hospital in Sherry Rehman’s car with burst tyres.

Senator Yousuf Talpur made this demand during a debate in the National Assembly on the president’s address to a joint sitting of parliament.

A close associate of Benazir, Talpur urged Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to order investigators to ask top party officials who took away the car Benazir was supposed to use in case of an emergency.

Babar Awan, Rehman Malik, Farhatullah Babar and Lt Gen (retired) Tauqeer Zia were in the backup vehicle that was supposed to remain at the site until the bulletproof vehicle Bhutto was travelling in had safely driven away from a public park in Rawalpindi.

Talpur said it was time for investigators to find out what made those in the vehicle drive away the backup car, The Daily Times reports.

He said people in Sindh were waiting for word on who killed their “beloved leader” and why her killers had not been punished. (ANI)