Government orders judicial inquiry into Bhutto assassination

Islamabad: Pakistan will hold a judicial inquiry into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the country's caretaker government said on Friday.

The head of the inquiry panel would be chosen in consultation with the leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro told reporters after a special meeting of his cabinet.

Soomro said a specific time-frame would be given for the submission of an inquiry report and the findings would be made public.

Asked why an autopsy on Bhutto's body was not carried out at the Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack, Soomro said it was a decision taken in consultation with the family and the PPP.

According to most media versions based on accounts of witnesses and PPP leaders who were with Bhutto at the time of Thursday's attack in Rawalpindi, firing preceded the apparent suicide bombing. PPP vice-president Makhdoom Amin Fahim told a news conference he was sitting to Bhutto's right and an aide was on her left.

While leaving the Liaquat Bagh public rally, Bhutto stood up and waved to the crowd from the sunroof of the bullet-proof vehicle and they heard the sound of firing and saw her falling, Fahim said.