Officials to meet Ban on Bhutto murder probe

Islamabad: Pakistan will send two key ministers to New York to deliver a formal request to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the establishment of an international commission to probe Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

Foreign Minister Shah Memood Qureshi and Law Minister Farooq H. Naek told a news conference here yesterday they would go to the UN as soon as an appointment was given by the world body's chief. The country's permanent representative to the UN, Munir Akram, has been asked to secure the appointment.

"The letter is ready and has been prepared on the basis of a consensus reached in consultations involving the ministries of foreign affairs, law and interior. We will hand it over to the UN secretary general," Qureshi said.

He noted that Pakistan's parliament has unanimously called for an international investigation into the murder of the former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party chief.

Bhutto was killed on December 27 last year in a gun and suicide attack while she was leaving the Liaquat Garden venue of her public meeting address in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near here.

The previous caretaker government after an investigation named tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud as mastermind of the attack. He was named as fugitive in a case initiated against some arrested suspects in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. The two ministers would hold consultations with the UN chief, permanent members of the Security Council and representatives of friendly countries in connection with the probe modalities.

International element

The law minister said a UN probe was essential as the assassination of Bhutto was not only a great loss to Pakistan but the world also lost a leader of stature. He said there was an "international element" in the heinous crime.

Responding to a question Naek said Baitullah Mehsud was identified as a suspect among others and it was yet to be established whether or not he was involved. Qureshi observed that Mehsud had denied alleged involvement.

"We do not want a witch hunt, just the truth so that all brought before the people of Pakistan and the world," Qureshi said.

The foreign minister dismissed apprehensions that an international probe could have harmful implications for the country's sovereignty and sensitive national matters.

To a question about reservations that Pakistani permanent representative had reportedly conveyed after the proposal for a UN probe was initiated, the foreign minister said Munir Akram's views were not rightly understood.

"We are in contact with the seasoned diplomat. He is on board and will be on board as we move forward," Qureshi said.

A UN probe had not been favoured by former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad and according to reports that was the reason for his abrupt replacement when ambassador to China Salman Bashir was given the top bureaucratic post at the foreign ministry.

The foreign minister brushed aside a question as to why international probe into proliferation activities of disgraced nuclear hero Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had been refused when the scandal surfaced more than four years ago.

There is no link between the two matters, he observed.