Autopsy anxeity on Pakistan

CNN:

Rawalpindi's police chief stopped doctors at the hospital where Benazir Bhutto died from conducting an autopsy, according to a lawyer on the hospital's board.

It was a violation of Pakistani criminal law and prevented a medical conclusion about what killed the former prime minister, said Athar Minallah, a lawyer who serves on the board that manages Rawalpindi General Hospital.

The revelation came on Monday after dramatic new videotape of Bhutto's assassination emerged, showing her slumping just after gunshots rang out.

The tape provided the clearest view yet of the attack and appeared to show that Bhutto was shot. That would contradict the Pakistan government's account. Watch new tape showing apparent gunman »

A previously released videotape showed a man at the right of her vehicle raising a gun, pointing it toward Bhutto, who was standing in her car with her upper body through the sunroof. He fired three shots, then there was an explosion.

In the video that emerged on Sunday, Bhutto was standing, and her hair and scarf appeared to move, perhaps from the bullet. Bhutto fell into the car, then came the blast.

These images seem to support the theory that Bhutto died at the hands of a shooter before a bomb was detonated, killing another 23 people.

Doctors at Rawalpindi General hospital declared the 54-year-old dead hours after Thursday's attack, but the cause of her death has been widely debated.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry announced on Friday that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when she fell or ducked into the car as a result of the shots or the explosion and crashed her head onto a sunroof latch. See the likely sequence of events »

Bhutto's family and political party maintain that the government is lying, and insist she died from gunshot wounds.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said the government's conclusion was based on "absolute facts, nothing but the facts" and "it was corroborated by the doctor's report."

But Minallah issued an open letter on Monday and released the doctors' clinical notes to distance them from the government statement, and he also talked to CNN.

In the letter, Minallah said the doctors "suggested to the officials to perform an autopsy," but that Rawalpindi police chief Aziz Saud "did not agree." He noted that under the law, police investigators have "exclusive responsibility" in deciding to have an autopsy.

Minallah told CNN that he was speaking out because the doctors at the hospital were "threatened."

"They are government servants who cannot speak -- I am not," he said. He did not elaborate on the threats against the doctors.

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This is absurd. It is also contradictory. Musharraf has said he has no objection to exhumation of her body for such an autopsy, while Butto's family says they do object. Combine this with the original decision by the police chief, which is inexplicable on its face, and it appears that no one, including the family is interested in getting a definitive cause of death.

It is in Pakistan's interest to have an international investigation of her death that includes an autopsy. Musharraf should be proactive in pursuing such an investigation and let the chips fall where they may. His failure to do so will taint any internal investigations which are already suspect because of the conflicting accounts and conflicting evidence as reported by CNN and others.

If Pakistan is to come out of its current crisis stronger, it needs a thorough transparent investigation with an official report released to the media.