UN delays Benazir report on Zardari request

Pakistan has delayed the delivery of a UN report on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to allow time for input on warnings Bhutto got from three countries,a presidential spokesman said.

Pakistan has delayed the delivery of a UN report on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to allow time for input on warnings Bhutto got from three countries,a presidential spokesman said.

The report follows a nine-month inquiry by a three-person UN panel and was due to be presented on Tuesday to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. But it has been delayed until April 15 because of a request by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari,Bhuttos widower,the United Nations said on Tuesday.

We requested them to include the views of three countries which had warned Bhutto after her return that she should take extra precaution because they had information she would be assassinated, said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar. He declined to identify the three countries.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide bomb attack after an rally in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27,2007. The then government led by allies of then president Pervez Musharraf blamed then Pakistani Taliban leader and al-Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud. Conspiracy theories have abounded in Pakistan over who was behind the assassination. Bhutto was mistrusted by sections of the Pakistani military and speculation has lingered that she was the victim of a plot by allies of Musharraf.

The UN chief set up the panel in July at the request of Pakistans coalition government,led by Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party. The panel,headed by Chiles UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz,looked into the circumstances surrounding the assassination. The panel,whose original six-month mandate had already been extended by three months,is not expected to name suspected culprits. Any criminal investigation will be up to Pakistani authorities.

Book will frighten those in power: Fatima

ISLAMABAD: Fatima Bhutto,the niece of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto,says her work on the Bhutto dynasty will frighten those in power in the country. Fatima had the first launch of Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughters Memoir at Clifton Gardens at the exact spot in of Karachi where her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto was killed nearly 14 years ago. Without taking the name of her aunt Benazirs widower President Asif Ali Zardari,Fatima said the man who orchestrated the killing of her father is currently leading the nation. PTI