[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.
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