Says stance taken vindicates
Party’s position
Islamabad January 25, 2008:
the Pakistan Peoples Party
has hailed the stance taken
by eight US senators and the
Human Rights Watch demanding
UN probe into the
assassination of former
Prime Minister Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto as
vindication of the Party’s
position.
Eight US Senators in a
letter addressed to
President Bush on Thursday
asked the American President
“to call on the Government
of Pakistan to
permit an immediate,
thorough, and credible
investigation, to be
conducted under the aegis of
the United Nations, into the
murder of Benazir Bhutto”.
The Senators also asked Bush
to ask the Musharraf regime
to “reconstitute the
Election Commission of
Pakistan, with the consensus
of all major political
parties”.
The Human Rights watch also
demanded a UN probe saying,
"Given Pakistan's dismal
record at investigations,
the need for an independent
international inquiry to
uncover Bhutto's killers is
obvious," adding also,
"Anything less would only
increase political tension
and instability in
Pakistan."
The Senators who signed the
letter include Russ
Feingold, Ted Kennedy, Chuck
Schumer, Bob Casey, Gordon
Smith, Robert Byrd, Robert
Menendez and Ben Cardin.
All except Gordon Smith are
Democrats.
”The regime must listen to
the strident calls by both
national and international
figures otherwise the people
would not be satisfied,
fingers would continue to be
pointed and the rejection
would be seen as aimed at a
cover up”, said spokesperson
of the Party former Senator
Farhatullah Babar in a
statement today.
He said that the Party would
not give up on its demand
for UN probe and continue to
agitate it at all available
forums.
If the present regime did
not give up its
unreasonableness and
stubbornness then the future
PPP government would
formally take it up with the
UN to probe the
assassination a la inquiry
into the murder of Lebanese
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,
he said.
He
said that the Party had no
faith in the investigations
ordered by the regime. The
Scotland Yard team had only
been asked to probe the
causes of death and
forbidden from investigating
the perpetrators,
financiers, executioners or
organizers of the
conspiracy.
The Yard investigators had
already been checkmated as
they are also not permitted
to question the suspects
named in Mohtarma Bhutto’s
letter of Oct 16 to General
Musharraf.
“The cause of justice would
not be served by laying the
blame only on nameless and
headless bodies of
terrorists. It can be served
only if the secret hands and
invisible structures giving
succor and support to the
nameless terrorists are
exposed” the spokesperson
said.
Following is the text of the
letter written by US
Senators.
