Pak to decide on PPP demand after British team gives report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government is expected to take a decision on the demand of ex-Premier Benazir Bhutto's party for a UN-led inquiry into her assassination after receiving the report of the Scotland Yard team probing the killing.
   
The government will also consult legal and constitutional experts before taking a final decision, but Attorney General Malik Qayyum believes the UN will not entertain the Pakistan People's Party's (PPP) petition for a probe unless it is endorsed by Pakistan's government.
    
"We should await the findings of the Scotland Yard experts before going any further," Qayyum said.

Sources in the government told 'The News' that asking for the establishment of a UN commission while the British team was already in the country would "not help".
   
They also pointed out that a UN-led inquiry on the lines of the probe into the killing of Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri could not be formed as no other country has been implicated in the murder of Bhutto. Syrian officials had been linked to Hariri's killing.
   
The UN intervenes in disputes between states or members of the world body, and al-Qaida, which has been blamed by the government for Bhutto's killing, is neither, the sources said.

The PPP on Thursday had given the government 48 hours to send its draft petition for an inquiry into Bhutto's assassination to the UN, failing which it said it would approach the world body to seeking suo motu action.

The party also plans to send copies of the petition to various embassies here and to send delegations abroad to lobby for support for its demand for a UN-led investigation.

PPP leader and eminent lawyer Latif Khosa might lead a team to the UN headquarters in New York.
   
Qayyum, however, noted the UN does not have any stipulated system for undertaking such investigations. The UN Secretary General will have to consult the Security Council or exercise his special powers to order any probe.