Pakistan People's Party wants UN investigation on Bhutto murder

Asif Ali Zardari and Family

PPP submits petition for UN probe in Bhutto's killing

16 Jan 2008, 1430 hrs IST,PTI

ISLAMABAD: Slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's party on Wednesday said it had submitted a petition to the United Nations seeking an investigation into her assassination after the Pakistan government refused to forward the request to the world body.

The Pakistan People's Party simultaneously launched an initiative to lobby governments around the world to back its demand for a UN-led inquiry. A delegation led by Bhutto's security advisor Rehman Malik travelled to Norway to explain the need for an international investigation to trace those responsible for her killing.

"The PPP has a secretariat in New York through which the petition has been sent to the UN," PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

"We will also approach governments around the world to explain our demand for the UN-led inquiry and to seek support for it," he said.

~MORE~



Bhutto murder blamed on Pakistan agents

Scotland on Sunday
Dec. 30, 2007

Pakistani policemen stand alert beside a poster of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto during a funeral ceremony in abstentia for Bhutto in Rawalpindi yesterday.

By Richard Elias and Jeremy Watson

FACTIONS within the Pakistan intelligence service might have been behind the assassination of the country's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, sources within MI5 told Scotland on Sunday last night.
Pakistan continues to teeter on the brink following Bhutto's death on Thursday as she left a rally for an election in which she was expected to become prime minister. The government has tried to blame militant groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which saw Bhutto's rise to power as a threat.

But security sources in the UK say pro-Taliban factions in Pakistan's feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency may have been behind the attack on the charismatic politician, who returned to her homeland from exile only two months ago to fight the election.

Bhutto, 54, blamed rogue elements in the ISI for a suicide bombing that killed 140 people at a rally shortly after her return in October. There were reports last night that just weeks ago, she had sent UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband a private e-mail naming three senior members of government who, she said, wanted her dead.

~MORE~