[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 445 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 445

Expressing the sense of the Senate on the assassination of former Prime 
   Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, and the political crisis in 
                               Pakistan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             February 7 (legislative day, February 6), 2008

Mr. Biden (for himself, Mr. Obama, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Harkin, 
 Mr. Casey, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Reid, and Mrs. Feinstein) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate on the assassination of former Prime 
   Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, and the political crisis in 
                               Pakistan.

Whereas, on October 18, 2007, former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto 
        returned to Pakistan after more than 8 years in exile, and was welcomed 
        by supporters numbering in the hundreds of thousands;
Whereas hours after her return, a suicide bomb attack on her convoy in Karachi 
        killed 145 people and narrowly missed killing Benazir Bhutto herself, in 
        one of the most violent terrorist attacks in Pakistan's history;
Whereas Members of Congress and other friends of Pakistan wrote to President of 
        Pakistan Pervez Musharraf weeks prior to the October 18, 2007, attack on 
        Benazir Bhutto, urging support for the democratic process and the 
        provision of adequate security for democratic leaders such as Benazir 
        Bhutto;
Whereas Members of Congress and other friends of Pakistan wrote to President of 
        Pakistan Pervez Musharraf immediately after the October 18, 2007, 
        attack, urging that a specific set of security measures be taken to 
        protect Benazir Bhutto, and that a full investigation into the October 
        18 attack be undertaken;
Whereas, on November 3, 2007, President Musharraf, in his role as Chief of Army 
        Staff of Pakistan, declared a state of emergency, suspended the 
        Constitution of Pakistan, dismissed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar 
        Chaudhry and other justices of the Supreme Court and provincial High 
        Courts, replacing them with candidates willing to take an oath to uphold 
        his actions during the suspension of the Constitution, and initiated a 
        nation-wide crackdown on political opposition, the media, and the courts 
        of Pakistan that resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 political 
        opponents;
Whereas, on December 15, 2007, President Musharraf lifted the State of 
        Emergency, but did not reinstate the dismissed Supreme Court and High 
        Court justices, allow full freedom of the press, or release all 
        political prisoners arrested during the crackdown;
Whereas President Musharraf justified his actions in November 2007 on the 
        grounds of more effective counterterrorism efforts, beginning his 
        November 3 proclamation with the statement, ``Whereas there is visible 
        ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist 
        attacks, including suicide bombings, IED explosions, rocket firing and 
        bomb explosions and the banding together of some militant groups have 
        taken such activities to an unprecedented level of violent intensity 
        posing a grave threat to the life and property of the citizens of 
        Pakistan'';
Whereas, on December 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto was killed in the garrison town of 
        Rawalpindi;
Whereas video footage, backed up by eyewitness testimony, shows at least 1 
        gunman firing shots at Benazir Bhutto instants before her death, and a 
        second terrorist detonating a bomb near her vehicle shortly after the 
        firing of the gunshots;
Whereas the precise circumstances surrounding both the October 18, 2007, attack 
        and the December 27, 2007, assassination remain unclear, and those 
        responsible for both terrorist attacks remain at large;
Whereas President Musharraf has accepted the assistance of Scotland Yard in his 
        government's investigation of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but 
        has rejected calls for an independent investigation under the auspices 
        of the United Nations;
Whereas President Musharraf has used the turmoil following the assassination of 
        Benazir Bhutto to delay elections from their scheduled date of January 
        8, 2008, to February 18, 2008;
Whereas Benazir Bhutto's political party and the other major opposition parties 
        had opposed this delay, and have expressed concern that it was motivated 
        by an intention to shape the outcome of the election through poll-
        rigging or other improper means;
Whereas the current political crisis in Pakistan has a grave impact on the 
        national security of the United States, in that it seriously undermines 
        the ability of the Government of Pakistan to devote adequate resources 
        and attention to the fight against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other 
        extremist forces;
Whereas the political crisis in Pakistan cannot be resolved without a speedy 
        return to the democratic path, including free and fair elections and 
        restoration of an independent judiciary in accordance with the express 
        wishes of the vast majority of the people of Pakistan;
Whereas the United States has provided Pakistan with approximately 
        $10,000,000,000 in assistance over the past 6 years; and
Whereas, on December 26, 2007, President Bush signed H.R. 2764, an omnibus 
        spending bill which limited United States military aid to Pakistan to 
        counterterrorism and law enforcement activities directed against al 
        Qaeda and the Taliban, and which withheld $50,000,000 in military aid 
        until such time as the Secretary of State reports that Pakistan has 
        restored democratic rights and an independent judiciary, and is making 
        concerted efforts to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) conveys the deep condolences of the people of the 
        United States to the people of Pakistan on the tragic loss of 
        former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and conveys special 
        condolences to the families of Benazir Bhutto and the other 
        victims of this terrorist attack;
            (2) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the murder 
        of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, and the slaughter of at 
        least 165 other Pakistani citizens in this attack and the prior 
        attempt on Benazir Bhutto's life in Karachi on October 18, 
        2007;
            (3) calls upon the Government of Pakistan to do everything 
        in its power to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to 
        justice, and to permit investigators to follow their inquiries 
        in whatever direction they may lead;
            (4) calls upon the Government of Pakistan to support and 
        facilitate an independent inquiry into the assassination of 
        Benazir Bhutto;
            (5) strongly urges the Government of Pakistan to ensure 
        that free and fair elections are held on February 18, 2008, as 
        scheduled, and that independent election monitors are allowed 
        to monitor the elections;
            (6) calls upon the Election Commission of Pakistan to 
        remove all of the restrictions it recently placed on election 
        observation activities, which included efforts to restrict 
        observer movement and the conduct of exit polling on Election 
        Day;
            (7) urges President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to replace 
        the partisan caretaker governments at the federal, provincial, 
        and district levels with neutral administrations acceptable to 
        all major political parties, and to reconstitute the Election 
        Commission as a genuinely nonpartisan body;
            (8) calls upon the Government of Pakistan to provide 
        adequate security, including the provision of adequately 
        armored vehicles and properly functioning jamming equipment to 
        help prevent the detonation of explosive devices, to all senior 
        opposition political leaders;
            (9) calls upon the Government of Pakistan to release those 
        individuals still being detained without charges and to end the 
        ongoing harassment of judges, opposition party activists, and 
        lawyers;
            (10) calls for the restoration of Pakistan's independent 
        judiciary and an end to all restrictions on the media and 
        freedom of speech;
            (11) calls upon the President to review all existing United 
        States aid to Pakistan, to ensure that all assistance furthers 
        the common goals shared by the people of Pakistan and the 
        United States, with specific reference to combating violent 
        radicalism and promoting a free and democratic Pakistan; and
            (12) if the President's review concludes that the 
        conditions described in paragraph (11) are not met, calls upon 
        the President to suspend (until such time as such conditions 
        can be met) the transfer to Pakistan of weapons systems 
        primarily designed and manufactured for combat against a rival 
        state rather than counterterrorism or counterinsurgency.
                                 <all>