The Hindu : International : Benazir planned to expose rigging plot

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Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
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International

Benazir planned to expose rigging plot

Hasan Suroor

Reports say PPP leader wanted to show evidence to U.S. Senators

LONDON: Conspiracy theories swirling round the former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s death have deepened with her party claiming that the day she was assassinated, Benazir had planned to meet two American Senators and show them supposedly clinching “evidence” of the Musharraf regime’s alleged plans to rig parliamentary elections using the U.S. aid meant for fighting terrorism.

The allegation, suggesting that Benazir might have been killed because her “disclosure” would have embarrassed Pakistan’s intelligence services, was widely reported in the British media on Tuesday.

Quoting Sarfraz Khan Lashari, a senior member of Pakistan People’s Party’s election monitoring cell, three national newspapers — The Guardian, The Times and The Independent — said that Benazir planned to brief Senators Patrick Kennedy (Democrat) and Arlen Specter (Republican) on a report that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was running an operation to rig the elections from a “safe house” in Islamabad.

The report, it was claimed, was prepared by PPP’s moles in the intelligence establishment.

“The report was done by some people whom we’ve got in the services. They directly dealt with Benazir Bhutto,” Mr. Lashari told The Times adding that she also planned to share its contents with the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Robert Brinkley.

The Independent quoted Mr. Lashari as saying that the report was “very sensitive” and Benazir wanted to share it with “trusted” U.S. politicians rather than the pro-Musharraf Bush administration.

“The report names a recently retired ISI officer who has allegedly been running the rigging unit, and claims he worked in tandem with another named senior intelligence officer. It also claims that U.S. aid funds were being used for the project,” the newspaper said.

Mr. Lashari accused the government of diverting American money intended for anti-terror campaign. “We had evidence of where they were spending the money.”

The alleged rigging unit was claimed to be operating from a safe house in Islamabad’s “G-5 neighbourhood.”

The Guardian said it was given a “rough location of the safe house” by a PPP official but it was not able to find the building.

Pakistan government officials rubbished the allegations and the British High Commission denied knowledge of any such report.

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