Rawalpindi, July 4: More than six months after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the Pakistani authorities’ investigation of her killing appears to have ground to a near halt, with the trail growing colder. The elegant and charismatic former prime minister was murdered Dec. 27 as she left a campaign rally at a park in Rawalpindi, the seat of the Pakistani military.

Yet, no independent Pakistani commission has been appointed to investigate the assassination, and police activity is barely sputtering along, according to several people familiar with the case.

The lack of progress comes despite the fact that her Pakistan People’s Party is now the senior partner in the country’s governing coalition, and her widowed husband, Asif Ali Zardari, wields enormous influence as the party’s leader. “It looks as if it’s a forgotten chapter,” said Talat Massood, a retired general who is now a political analyst. “The internal agencies are not very active and focused on it”

Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban commander swiftly blamed by the Pakistani government for masterminding the assassination, remains free in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Military officials say there has been no attempt to capture him.

Beyond accusing Mehsud, the government has made little visible headway. The cases of five people arrested in the weeks following Bhutto’s death are being heard before a special anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. But even the prosecution describes the accused as relatively low-level figures in the plot. The key players in Bhutto’s killing — those who financed the operation and recruited the assailants — remain at large, said a senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Police have been ordered not to speak publicly about the case. Two senior officers reneged on an agreement to be interviewed about the status of the investigation, saying they could not discuss it without the authorisation of Rehman Malik, the top official in the Interior Ministry, top civilian law-enforcement agency. Malik was Bhutto’s senior security adviser at the time of the assassination, and his own decision-making about her security arrangements has been sharply criticised. Before taking power in elections, Bhutto’s party expressed deep skepticism about the government’s version of events surrounding the killing, including the conclusion that she was killed by the suicide bomb that hit her vehicle rather than by gunshots.

Bhutto’s party now says it has no plans to appoint an independent Pakistani commission, saying that only the UN can carry out a credible investigation. Many analysts believe the world body is unlikely to undertake such a mission.