The UN chief confirmed on Thursday that he has agreed to Pakistan’s request and will set up an independent commission to identify former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s killers “with a view to bring them to justice.”
The agreement was confirmed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office moments after it was announced by Pakistan’s top diplomat. The two had met briefly in private just beforehand.
“The objectives are for the commission to identify the culprits, perpetrators, organizers and financiers of the assassination,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters.
Determining who was behind Bhutto’s killing could bring clarity and determination to Pakistan’s fragile coalition government, which sought the inquiry.
It also could help stabilize a nation that is a key US ally in its fight against terrorism, but is seen as increasingly in disarray with an influx of insurgents joining with al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Pakistan’s remote tribal and mountainous areas.
Pakistan now is run by Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of her Pakistan People’s Party, who also has been consumed by efforts to remove President Pervez Musharraf. But the military is the main force propping up the nation. Half the ministers left the cabinet in May, bickering over the fate of judges dismissed by Musharaff last year.
Suspicions about Bhutto’s death have been cast far and wide, a further reason for the government’s pressing to clear up the matter.
Qureshi assured reporters that Ban would appoint “well-respected, eminent people” to the independent commission.
“We have reached an understanding, and there is a concrete decision on that,” the foreign minister said. “What is being discussed and further consultations are required are on the modalities.”
Ban’s office also said in a statement that “broad understanding had been reached” on the nature of the commission, including: how to pay for it; who its members should be; how to protect its independence and impartiality; and that its members should have unfettered access to the information it needs.
But Ban said he would have to talk further with Pakistan and other UN officials to hammer out all the details.
Qureshi said he believed Ban had authority without the UN Security Council’s approval to set up a commission to try to identify the culprits in Bhutto’s assassination as quickly as possible. But Qureshi also said some council members he spoke with were supportive of establishing a commission.
“The broad understanding is going to be that it should be done in the shortest possible time, so that we do not want it sort of a lingering thing, going on for years,” Qureshi said.
Bhutto died in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27 as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
Her death shocked the world and Pakistan, fanning revulsion at rising militant violence and theories that Pakistan’s powerful spy agencies were involved.
It also helped propel her party to victory in February elections, and since then the fledgling coalition government has made a UN probe into who was behind the killing a top priority.
Qureshi said Pakistan would help as much as possible.
“We have said that we will give unhindered access to sources of relevant information,” he said.
The previous government and the CIA quickly accused Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant commander often blamed for suicide attacks, of orchestrating the killing.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry released a wiretap in which Mehsud associates purportedly congratulated each other for her death.
Bhutto had called for Pakistan to redouble its efforts against Islamic extremism.
Bhutto’s party has argued that the UN should probe the killing, given Mehsud’s alleged links to al-Qaeda and because of the huge political controversy that surrounds the case in Pakistan.
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