Musharraf Rejects UN Probe

[Princess Royal]

Musharraf Rejects UN Probe

ISLAMABAD, 13 January 2008 — President Pervez Musharraf yesterday ruled out a UN inquiry into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as demanded by her party, saying Pakistan is not Lebanon.

Benazir’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her son Bilawal have both called for a UN inquiry, along the lines of the world body’s probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“It is not possible. Is another country involved?” he said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. “Pakistan is not Lebanon.”

“It’s a simple case of murder. We have our own institutions and we can count on the help of Scotland Yard. I hope that the investigation report will be made public before the elections,” he added.

General elections are due on Feb. 18. They were postponed by nearly six weeks because of widespread riots over Benazir’s killing at a political rally on Dec. 27 that threw the nation into turmoil.

Musharraf said Pakistan had its own institutions to manage the inquiry and noted they would also be helped by British police.

He said there was a campaign by Al-Qaeda to undermine Pakistan but said: “They do not have the capacity to destabilize the country, but their suicide attacks create disorder and dishearten the population. However, Pakistan is not on the verge of disintegration.”

He also said Pakistan’s economy would survive if the United States decided to cut financial aid. “Do you think Pakistan would die if it didn’t receive this money? Our economy is doing well,” he said.

“Over the last six years, we have received a total of around $9 billion. More than half for fighting terrorism... If the Americans don’t want to pay any more, that’s up to them. But the fight against terrorism would suffer,” Musharraf said.

Musharraf said he would quit if he really believed that he no longer had the support of most Pakistanis , but that reports of his unpopularity were untrue. “I know very well what is the support that I have from the masses, the elite and the army. The day I think that I am genuinely unpopular, I will be the first to resign,” he told the paper.

In the Bhutto family, differences over Bilawal’s appointment as chief of the Pakistan People’s Party came out in the open yesterday. In an interview with the Times of London, Benazir’s niece described as “dangerous” the idea that the PPP must be led by a member of the family.

Fatima Bhutto, 25, is still seen by some in Pakistan as a potential heir to the family dynasty, although her cousin, Bilawal, was named PPP co-chairman after his mother’s assassination.

Fatima told the Times that she might be interested in a career in politics, although would not be “a symbol” for anyone, and denounced the PPP as “desperate to cash in on her (Benazir’s) blood.”

“It’s become in a sense the family business, like an antique shop where it’s just ‘So and So and Sons,’ and then grandsons and great grandsons. It just gets handed down,” she said.

“The idea that it has to be a Bhutto, I think, is a dangerous one. It doesn’t benefit Pakistan.“It doesn’t benefit a party that’s supposed to be run on democratic lines and it doesn’t benefit us as citizens if we think only about personalities and not about platforms.”

At a London press conference earlier this week, Bilawal strongly denied a suggestion from a journalist that his role had been handed down to him “like some piece of family furniture.”

Fatima’s father was Benazir’s younger brother Murtaza, killed in mysterious circumstances in Karachi 12 years ago while Benazir was in power. Her side of the family was subsequently locked in a feud with Benazir, but joined in the mourning after the former premier’s assassination.

“Ultimately, the party workers believe that nobody can head the party but a Bhutto, but I don’t think the workers believe that on whomever you put the Bhutto name can lead,” Fatima told the Times.

“They seem to be a party in a hurry and they seem to be desperate to cash in on her blood. There was a certain coterie around her that benefited richly from her government and they plan, it seems, to benefit richly from her death as well.”

She called for Benazir’s will, which the PPP says gave Benazir’s husband Zardari charge of the party, to be made public.

Asked about her own political ambitions, she said: “If there was an opportunity for new faces to come up and new voices to be heard and if I could be of service in some way, I wouldn’t say no. But I’m not interested in being a symbol for anyone.”

According to a survey released yesterday, almost half of all Pakistanis believe that government-allied agencies or politicians were responsible for the assassination of Benazir. And more than half backed Bilawal as the right person to succeed the slain opposition leader as the new chief of her party, the poll by Gallup Pakistan said.


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