Eighteen years after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the legal battle surrounding her murder continues without resolution, highlighting prolonged delays in Pakistan’s justice system.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) marked Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, where she was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack on December 27, 2007. Despite years of investigations, trials and appeals, the masterminds behind the killing have yet to be conclusively identified or punished.

The case remained under trial at a special Anti-Terrorism Court for a decade before moving to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court, where it has been pending for the last eight years. From January 2024 to December 2025, the case was not fixed for hearing even once.

Benazir Bhutto was killed moments after addressing a public rally, becoming the second prime minister assassinated at Liaquat Bagh after Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951. The attack also claimed the lives of 27 party workers and injured 98 others.

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The case went through four separate investigations, including a United Nations inquiry, and involved seven challans, 291 hearings and 57 witnesses. In 2017, five accused were acquitted, while two senior police officers were sentenced to 17 years in prison. Former president Pervez Musharraf was declared a proclaimed offender but never faced trial before his death.

Currently, 12 appeals related to the case remain pending before the high court, keeping the quest for justice unfinished.