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Musharraf rules out UN probe
12/01/2008 19:47 - (SA)
Danny Kemp
Islamabad - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf ruled out a United Nations probe into the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, in an interview with a French newspaper published on Saturday.
Musharraf told Le Figaro that UN involvement was out of the question, and that the investigation into Bhutto's murder would be handled internally with the help of British police from Scotland Yard.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her teenage son Bilawal have both called for a UN inquiry, along the lines of the world body's probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
"This is not possible. Another country is involved? Pakistan is not Lebanon," Musharraf said in a transcript released by the Pakistani government, referring to the implication of Syrian officials in the Hariri killing.
"It's a simple murder. We have our own institutions and we can count on the help of Scotland Yard. I hope that the investigation report will be made public before the elections," he added.
Pakistan's general elections are due on February 18. They were postponed by nearly six weeks because of widespread riots over Bhutto's killing at a political rally on December 27 that threw the nation into turmoil.
Bilawal said last week that the family and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) wanted a "UN sponsored investigation, because we do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistan government has the necessary transparency".
The Pakistani president insisted the elections would go ahead and, while acknowledging an al-Qaeda campaign to destabilise Pakistan, denied the country was "on the verge of disintegration".
"They (the elections) will be held whatever happens. We have to defeat (the) terrorists' campaign aimed at derailing the democratic and economic process," he said.
Musharraf meanwhile said he would quit if he really believed that he no longer had the support of most Pakistanis, but that reports of his unpopularity were untrue.
"I know very well what is the support that I have from the masses, the elite and the army. The day I think that I am genuinely unpopular, I will be the first to resign," he told Le Figaro.
But in a sign of growing scepticism about Musharraf's regime, a survey released on Saturday showed that almost half of all Pakistanis believe government-allied agencies or politicians were responsible for Bhutto's death.
The survey by Gallup Pakistan said 23% of people suspected government intelligence or security agencies of being responsible for her assassination, and a further 25% believed government-allied politicians were to blame.
Only 17% of Pakistanis believed the government's official account that al-Qaeda militants were to blame.
Bhutto herself accused several senior government and intelligence officials of plotting to kill her following a double suicide attack on a parade to welcome her home from exile in October.
- AFP
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