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Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
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Musharraf to seek Scotland Yard help

Nirupama Subramanian

Elections postponed to February 18

Pervez Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has invited Scotland Yard to assist it in the investigations into the killing of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, even as the parliamentary and provincial assembly elections, scheduled for January 8, have been put off to February 18.

In an address to the nation on Wednesday, President Pervez Musharraf said the government decided to call in a Scotland Yard team to “assist” in the investigations in order to clear the confusion and “conspiracy theories” surrounding the assassination.

But the Pakistan People’s Party rejected the announcement, and stuck to its demand for setting up an investigation commission under the auspices of the United Nations.

Evidence destroyed, alleges PPP

“We reject it on the grounds that we demanded [a Scotland Yard] investigation after the October 18 attack [on the PPP welcome parade for Benazir], and it was accepted by the government, and on the ground that there should be non-association of Pakistani investigators. We do not have any faith in them, because they are the ones who have already destroyed all the evidence,” said PPP senator Babar Awan.

Mr. Awan, who was speaking from Naudero, where the PPP central executive committee met on Wednesday, said the party was firm that investigations “should be carried out under the auspices of the United Nations.”

In his address, General (retd.) Musharraf said photographic and technical evidence from the scene of killing and the numerous eyewitness accounts emerging daily required expert assessment. “I am hopeful that with the help of Scotland Yard, the investigations will go well and in the right direction, and will help clear the confusion that surrounds the killing.”

Earlier in the day, the Election Commission pushed the national elections to February 18. The PPP and other parties condemned the postponement but said they would participate in the elections.

“We will participate in the election; we won’t let them escape by leaving the field open,” Asif Zardari, who has taken effective control of the PPP after his wife Benazir’s killing, said at a press conference in Naudero.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) reacted angrily to the postponement, and called it an admission of the government’s “failure” to hold free and fair elections on schedule.

“It is time President Musharraf and the Chief Election Commissioner resign and make way for a neutral caretaker government of national unity that will hold the elections,” said PML(N) spokesman Ahsan Iqbal. But he indicated that the party would participate, although it would first consult the PPP.

General Musharraf said the postponement was “reasonable” and “correct.” He reiterated Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammed Farooq’s position that the elections could not be held next week because of the “largescale” destruction of election-related records and materials in the Sindh province.

Army to be deployed

He announced that the Army and the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers would be deployed to ensure “a free, fair, transparent, and in addition, a peaceful” election, and they would remain deployed even after the polls to deal with “agitationists and troublemakers.”

General Musharra appealed to all parties to work towards political reconciliation and to “keep Pakistan first.”

He called on Pakistanis to unite in the fight against extremism and terrorism, asking them to stand united behind the law-enforcing agencies battling militants in the tribal areas.

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