Overview
- Sindh declared a public holiday and deployed 10,000 police at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, where Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and President Asif Ali Zardari were slated to address a public gathering.
- First Lady Aseefa Bhutto Zardari offered prayers at the Bhutto family mausoleum, as mourners visited Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi to pay respects at the assassination site.
- President Asif Ali Zardari issued a message reaffirming Benazir Bhutto’s agenda of an inclusive, tolerant, pluralist Pakistan and framed the fight against extremism as a battle of ideas as well as security.
- Eighteen years on, the case remains unresolved, with 12 appeals pending at the Lahore High Court and no hearings fixed between January 2024 and December 2025.
- An anti-terrorism court in 2017 convicted two Rawalpindi police officers for negligence, acquitted five accused, and declared Pervez Musharraf a proclaimed offender, while probes and a UN report faulted authorities for protection and investigative failures.