Pakistan ? 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, one of the most popular politicians in Pakistan’s history, was murdered Dec. 27 as she left a campaign rally at a park in Rawalpindi, the seat of the Pakistani military.

Yet while her death at 54 stunned Pakistan and the world, 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”