U.K. to Help Pakistan Investigate Bhutto Case
Legislative Elections Delayed to Feb. 18

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service

KARACHI, Pakistan, -- A team of Scotland Yard investigators will probe the killing of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced in a nationwide address Wednesday night. Musharraf also defended the postponement of parliamentary elections until Feb. 18, a decision that opposition parties condemned but said they would grudgingly accept.

The admission that the Pakistani government needs outside help in its investigation came amid a domestic and international uproar over the way police officials have handled the case.

Authorities have come under intense criticism for hosing down the crime scene within minutes of last Thursday's gun-and-bomb attack against Bhutto, a former two-term prime minister. Critics have also said the government erred by announcing that, rather than being killed in gunfire, Bhutto died after the force of the bombing caused her head to slam against the lever of her vehicle's sunroof. It is unclear how much the Scotland Yard investigators, who are expected in Pakistan this weekend, can accomplish given that much of the evidence has been destroyed. The team will be small and will consist only of officers from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command.

The controversy about exactly how Bhutto died has contributed to deep suspicion over who carried out the attack. Musharraf said Wednesday that he had no doubt Islamic extremists were behind Bhutto's murder. He sought to soothe her enraged supporters -- many of whom blame him and his allies for her death -- by asserting that he and Bhutto had the same goals.

"Benazir Bhutto wanted democracy and wanted to fight against terrorism, and these are exactly my wishes," Musharraf said. U.S. officials in Washington welcomed Musharraf's plans to bring in the British investigators, but Bhutto's party said it was not satisfied, and it continued to press for a U.N.-led inquiry.

"The regime has lost all credibility," the Pakistan People's Party said in a statement. "Neither a domestic inquiry nor vague foreign involvement when all traces of evidence have been systematically destroyed would lay to rest the lingering doubts and suspicions." The party pointed to a letter Bhutto wrote Musharraf in October in which she named several people with past or current connections to the government who she said were trying to kill her.

"If it indeed was the job of terrorists, then these terrorists have already been identified in Mohtarma Bhutto's letter," the party said, using an honorific.
Musharraf's acceptance of British investigators came on the same day that the Election Commission of Pakistan said voting scheduled for Tuesday will instead take place Feb. 18.

The delay, the commission said, was unavoidable because of damage sustained in riots last week following Bhutto's death. The rioting was especially severe in Sindh province, Bhutto's home region, where mobs ransacked several Election Commission offices. "It was inevitable, and the decision of delaying the election is quite right," said Musharraf, whose party backed the delay. Opposition parties had strongly opposed it, in the belief that an election next week would allow them to better capitalize on sympathy for Bhutto and on a strong backlash against the government.

Independent elections experts, too, had pushed for the vote to be held Tuesday. The pretext for delaying, they said, was flimsy because the logistical hurdles could have been overcome.

"The reasons given by the Election Commission do not seem very convincing," said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, who heads the Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency. "The commission will now seem even more partisan than it did before this decision."

Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and the interim leader of the Pakistan People's Party, said at a news conference Wednesday night that he would not call supporters to the streets in protest. The move seemed to reflect concerns that political agitation could lead to more violence. "We ask people to be peaceful and to show their anger at the ballot box," Zardari said.

Opposition parties have been arguing for months that Musharraf's allies plan to rig the polls. Bhutto, who was seeking to win back her old job as prime minister, had been making the claim regularly. On Wednesday opposition leaders said the delay was one more attempt by the government to dictate the outcome of Pakistan's first national elections in more than five years.
"This is yet more proof that Musharraf cannot stick to his word and hold the election," said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the party led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. "Musharraf must step down."

The president said in his address Wednesday night that he wants "free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections" for the country. To help achieve that goal, he announced that army and paramilitary troops that had been deployed in many areas last week to quell the rioting would remain in place at least until the election, and perhaps afterward.

Pakistan is going through one of the most tumultuous periods in its 60-year history. Frequent attacks in recent months have led to widespread fear, as well as disillusionment.

At a bustling market in Lahore selling pirated DVDs, where a Hollywood film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had sold out after the killing of Bhutto, one shop owner said he expected more trouble.
"I tell my family, these next few days in Pakistan will be important," said Mian Maqsood, 50. "If we can keep the violence 100 percent out, maybe we have a chance. But I am not sure that will be the case."