Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killers had visited Liaquat Ali Bagh and rehearsed their plan a day before her assassination, Additional Inspector General of Police and CID Chief Abdul Majeed has claimed. Benazir was assassinated in Rawalpinidi on December 27 soon after she addressed an election rally at the Liaquat Ali Bagh.
The terrorists, who were involved in the Benazir’s assassination, have confessed their involvement in December 27 plot, Majid told reporters.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s book “Reconciliation – Islam, Democracy and the West” will be published in several languages, including Urdu. The book that been published by Harper Collins in the United States and Simon and Schuster in Europe and Asia was described by former Time Magazine publisher Walter Isaacson as an "extraordinarily important and beautiful work" that can be a brilliant manifesto for challenging militants in the Islamic world.
Islamabad, Apr. 20: 
Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s niece, Fatima Bhutto, is reportedly in talks with a British literary agent to write and sell a memoir on the Bhutto dynasty.
Fatima, 25, who already has two books to her credit, has reportedly sent a 12-page proposal for the as-yet-untitled family memoir of Pakistan’s best known political dynasty to top British literary agent David Godwin.
According to the Daily Times, Fatima is likely to meet Godwin, whose clients include Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and William Dalrymple, in London shortly.
“It’s the story of her family from the inside – she is the most remarkable woman with an extraordinary story to tell,” Godwin was quoted as saying by the literary website bookseller. com.
“It’s a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, a family ravaged by death and division,” Godwin added.
Fatima and her step-mother Ghinwa Bhutto have often hinted that they believe Benazir or her widower Asif Ali Zardari had a hand in the killing of her father Murtaza Bhutto.
Godwin said Fatima “believes Benazir was the cause of the death of her father and part of the book will be an investigation into whether that was the case”.
Though Benazir made several warm references in her autobiography, ‘Daughter of the East’, to her niece, Fatima believes her aunt tried to split the Bhutto family apart.
Benazir also disparaged Ghinwa as a “Lebanese belly dancer”, and six months after Murtaza’s death persuaded Fatima’s biological mother, Fauzia, to return to Karachi to seek parental custody.
“It was just vulgar and crude,” Fatima said about the event while talking to the Guardian newspaper after Benazir’s assassination last year.
Fatima did her Master’s degree at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies. Instead of heading a debating society like her aunt at Oxford, she wrote her dissertation on the resistance movement to former president Ziaul Haq.
She published a book of poetry, ‘Whispers of the Desert’, at the age of 15, followed in 2006 by a collection of stories about the 2005 earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s last book, ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West’ is selling like hot cakes across Pakistan. The Saeed Book Bank at Islamabad’s Jinnah Super Market said: “We are selling 100 copies a day. It is the only book in our shop that has a high selling rate.”
“We had ordered 50 books on the demand of the people and all them have been sold. People are taking a keen interest in her last book completed just days before her assassination,” said another shopThe Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has recorded the statement of Abdul Rashid Turabi in connection with the case. According to the superintendent of Police (Investigations), Tahir Ayub, Turabi has confessed to his involvement in the attack on Benazir.
Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua recorded turabi’s statement after he was produced before the court.
Turabi is now lodged in the Central Jail at Adiala on judicial remand for 14 days.
Pirated copies of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto’s new book, ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West’, are selling like hot cakes in Rawalpindi and adjoining areas. According to the Daily Times, original and pirated copies of the 328-page book, launched by Harper Collins publishing house last week, are available at bookstores and Saddar book Bazaar’s stalls.
The original book is priced at Rs. 1, 300, but its pirated version can be purchased for Rs. 395.
Pakistani security forces have arrested a top militant leader blamed by the slain former premier Benazir Bhutto for plotting a suicide attack on her in Karachi on October 18, 2007. Qari Saifullah Akhtar and his three sons were arrested on Tuesday by security forces at Ferozwala near Lahore, Geo News quoted official sources, as saying.
Akhtar, who is linked to al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and was head of the outlawed Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, fought along with the Mujahideen during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Police in Rawalpindi have charged local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud with the murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto and declared him an absconder. "We have submitted preliminary charges against Baitullah Mehsud in connection with Benazir Bhutto's murder in an anti-terrorism court Rawalpindi," a foreign news agency quoted a senior police official, as saying.
The United Nations Security Council has said that it will consider a UN investigation into the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto only after a formal request is made by the Pakistan government.
It said that so far no request has been received from Islamabad in this regard.
"So far we have not received any request," The Nation quoted United States Ambassador to the world body Zalmay Khalilzad as saying while responding to a question at a Pakistan Day reception in New York.
Pakistan's 15th Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani vowed to take all out efforts for the supremacy of Parliament, and asked MPs to pass a resolution to conduct UN probe into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
In a maiden speech on the floor of National Assembly after he was elected as Prime Minister, he said, “I request the national assembly as my first job to pass a resolution for UN probe into the assassination of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.”
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's posthumously published book has been described by the New York Times as a work of "enormous intelligence, courage and clarity", containing the best-written and most persuasive modern interpretation of Islam.
Reviewing Benazir's book -- Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West -- noted journalist Fareed Zakaria says in the Sunday issue of the New York Times that Bhutto finally managed to close "the gap between ambition and action that haunted (her) for most of her public life."
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan appears to be on a collision course with the new coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
According to sources, the government has expressed its annoyance over Khan raising objections to a United Nations probe into the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Khan is reportedly in agreement with certain elements in the Foreign Office (FO) who were opposed to the idea of seeking UN assistance to investigate the bombing on December 27.
The Daily Times quoted sources as saying that his opposition to a key government decision might land him in serious trouble, though he is trying to build bridges withForeign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and is hosting a reception today to introduce ambassadors and high commissioners to Qureshi.
Sources said several Foreign Office officials, apart from the Foreign Secretary, are professionally averse to the idea of involving the UN in the probe as they believed that asking the UN for help in a purely internal matter would set an unhealthy precedent for the body to interfere in the affairs of other countries.
Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said that any decision on the probe would be taken by the government.
Pakistan's National Assembly is set to pass a resolution on Thursday recommending that the United Nations (UN) conduct an investigation into former premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination. President Pervez Musharraf has summoned the session on Thursday, which is likely to continue for at least a fortnight.
"Besides the resolution demanding a probe into Benazir Bhutto's assassination through a UN Commission, we will also try to pass another resolution seeking an apology over the judicial murder of the party's founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on behalf of the parliament," the Daily Times quoted Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chief Whip Khursheed Shah, as saying.
He also said parliamentary committees would chalk out a draft package for the restoration of the deposed judges, including sacked Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
"It is premature to say whether the restoration of the judges will be made during the forthcoming session or we have to call another session for this particular purpose at the end of April. One thing is for sure that all the coalition partners are committed to the cause of the restoration of judges," he said.
Repealing FCR: Parliamentary committees will also work on the repeal of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) during the session, Shah added.
He said that, as this is the first working session of the newly elected National Assembly, there will be general discussions on pressing issues, such as the water and power crises, spiralling inflation, the re-publication of blasphemous caricatures in Danish newspapers, and the law and order situation.
"Some privilege motions and adjournment motions submitted by the MNAs, besides the Arbab Ghulam Rahim episode, will also come under discussion during the session," he added.
Shah said the National Assembly would work on forming parliamentary committees and electing their chairmen.
United Nations has said that so far it had not received any request from the Pakistan government for an UN probe into the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto. The statement came on yesterday when the Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution demanding a UN probe into the leader’s killing.
Responding to a question at her daily briefing, UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said on Monday that the UN had received no request from the Government of Pakistan for an investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. “No letter has been received yet,” the Daily Times quoted her as saying.
The resolution demanding a UN probe into Benazir’s killing was moved by Pakistan Law Minister Farooq Naek, who urged the government to approach the UN for an "international investigation commission" to look into the assassination of the PPP chairwoman.The PPP has decided to name the famous Jinnah Park in Rawalpindi after former Pakistan premier Bhutto Park. Besides, a monument of slain PPP chairperson will be installed in the Liaquat Bagh, and the Murree Road and General Hospital will also be named after her. Fozia Habib, an MNA and Assistant Political Secretary of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari announced this at a ceremony of cheques distribution among the heirs of December 27 victims who were killed along with Benazir Bhutto in the suicide blast.
MNA Fozia Habib said that though compensation to the martyred of December 27 incident was not possible owing to their great sacrifice for the cause of democracy but PPP would support their heirs by all means in this time of test. She said that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had directed the government to help the heirs of martyred December 27.
She said that the government should take all essential steps for the betterment of the heirs of martyred of Dec 27.
The United Nations is yet to receive a letter from Pakistan for conducting an international probe into the December 27, 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto. A spokesperson of the UN when asked how Secretary-General plans to proceed now that Pakistan Parliament has decided to seek a UN inquiry, said, they are yet to receive any communication from Pakistan in this regard.
It may be recalled that President Pervez Musharraf was opposed to the UN inquiry.
The Musharraf regime had accused an al-Qaeda militant Baitullah Mehsud of killing Bhutto but several lawmakers said that he might not be the culprit and want an independent inquiry into the assassination.
Mehsud also has denied any hand in the killing.The kidnappers of missing Pakistan envoy Tariq Azizuddin have reportedly demanded the release of 12 prisoners, including the men suspected of plotting Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, in exchange for his release. News of Tariq, who has been missing since February 11, surfaced when an Arab satellite channel broadcast a video showing his being flanked by his driver and bodyguard. He was shown urging the Pakistan Government to secure his speedy release.
According to a BBC report, the kidnappers demanded the release of Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, Tehreek-e-Nifaaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TSNM) chief Maulana Sufi, five Afghan Taliban and the three men arrested on charges of allegedly plotting Benazir Bhutto’s assassination — Aitzaz Shah, Hussnain and Rafaqat.
The people demanded by the kidnappers in exchange for the release of the envoy are all linked to militant commander Baitullah Mehsud, the Online news agency quoted the BBC report as saying.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umar said the organisation had no involvement in the kidnapping of Azizuddin, and added that they also had no knowledge of the abduction of the envoy
Meanwhile, a tribal leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the tribesmen of the area could not confirm whether the kidnapped ambassador had ever been kept in any tribal area of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He also said that they had no information on the identity of the kidnappers.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been posthumously awarded the prestigious Tipperary International Peace Award 2007 in an impressive ceremony in the southwestern Irish town of Tipperary.
Bhutto’s long-time associate Bashir Riaz received the award on behalf of her family from Ireland’s Minister of State for Health and Children Maire Hoctor.
An emotional Riaz said that he had been asked to receive the award by Benazir’s husband Asif Zardari as, in his own words, “this would make her (Benazir’s) soul happy.”
“It’s a matter of pride that Benazir Bhutto has been given this award, but it makes us all sad that she is not here to receive the award herself,” Riaz said.
“Benazir’s relentless struggle for the restoration of democracy and peace convinced the Tipperary Peace Committee to decide the award in her favour,” said the committee’s secretary, Martin Quinn, while announcing the award.
“In her the world has lost a big leader. Benazir worked tirelessly to bring stability to her country and she was one of the biggest leaders that we had seen in a long time,” he added.
Previous recipients of the award have been, former South African president Nelson Mandela, former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev, former US president Bill Clinton, US Senator George Mitchell, and the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Messages sent by Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani were also read out on the occasion. Both said it was a matter of pride and inspiration for the people of Pakistan that Benazir’s name had been included in the prestigious list.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner-designate to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan was visibly emotional when he recalled that Benazir never gave up hope for the betterment of people in Pakistan.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharrf had been planning the Kargil incursion (on India) long before March-July 1999 when he actually launched it, reveals a new book in Pakistan. During Benazir Bhutto’s second stint as Pakistan premier in the mid-90s, Musharraf, as the head of military operations at Pakistan Army Headquarters, had recommended a military incursion into Srinagar. Bhutto, however, had a different view and reminded him that “Pakistan would not be able to sustain the gains and would be forced to withdraw”.
This has been disclosed in the book “Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within”, written by Pakistani author Shuja Nawaz, which reproduces the author’s conversations at different times between Benazi and Musharraf.
The book reveals that the Kargil operation was planned well before January 1999 and well before former Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore by road, reports the Daily Times.
According to the book, Musharraf told Benazir that time was running out and Pakistan should invade Srinagar to take control over it, because in his words, “with the passage of time the India-Pakistan equation, military equation and economic equation is going against us”.
But, Benazit took offence to it, discloses the book.
The book quotes Musharraf as saying: “I told her that the time window for the resolution of Kashmir dispute is short. Because, with (the) passage of time, the India-Pakistan equation, military equation and economic equation is going against us ... she minded that a lot. I told her that with time, the differential is increasing and the window will close. Therefore, if at all, we have to do anything, we should be planning to do it in a short while. Otherwise we lose the opportunity ... It was just that I had a more proactive view on what we should be doing in Kashmir and she did not like that. She held totally defensive: ‘let’s sideline the issue altogether. Don’t bother about it.’ ... So she took offense to it.”
Musharraf had further told Benazir: “I personally think that time is not on our side. Time is in the favour of India.’ There was no Kargil type of situation discussed ... I said only that the Mujahideen were doing something over there. My view was if we are bringing about qualitative enhancement and quantitative is all in our hands, in the government’s hands, as far as Mujahideen are concerned. You can send them arms etc. whenever you like. Qualitatively, that is all that I said, but I didn’t give her ... give any kind of a plan of action, military action.”
The book also quotes other Pakistani personalities over Kargil planning. According to the book, Gen Jehangir Karamat said: “Kargil came up several times. The Dras-Kargil Road was an interdiction target for indirect artillery fire. During my tenure, Indians interdicted Neelam Valley Road, cutting off AJK. We had a major planning conference to develop a response. We decided to construct a by-pass and continue interdiction on Dras-Kargil Road. This did not work and Indians continued. In the next conference we considered physical interdiction of the road but decided the consequences would create problems for locals and hamper covert operations in Kashmir. We decided to move heavy weapons forward and carry out interdiction with direct fire. This was enormously effective. The Indians got the message and backed (off) on Neelam Valley Road. In any case, we had decided to develop an alternative route for logistics into PoK- this was completed.””
Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s foreign minister at the time of Kargil, said that the Kargil operation was planned well before January 1999 and well before the Vajpayee visit and linked it to the 1994-96 Neelam Valley artillery attack by India. “I don’t think they realised the full implications of these plans.”
Lt Gen. Ziauddin, whom the then Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif tried to appoint in place of Musharraf, said that Sharif was fully in the picture on Kargil from a certain point on. According to Zia, the Prime Minister had the authority to order a halt to the operation at any point if he had serious doubts. But he did not. “This is damning testimony from a man whom Sharif was later to appoint Musharraf’s replacement and who was then under threat of a court martial and under house arrest for almost two years on Musharraf’s orders,” Shuja writes.
About withdrawal from Kargil, the author writes that Musharraf did not take a firmer position against stepping back. Uncharacteristically, if his account is to be believed, he allowed Sharif to make his decision to go to Washington and seek Clinton’s help in arranging a ceasefire and withdrawal of troops from the forward lines. On his part, Sharif had taken an indirect approach yet again with yet another Army chief, while apparently harboring deep distrust about the Chief’s aims.
Sharif reportedly told Clinton that he was in a ‘box’ and needed his help, but in turn Clinton replied: “You have put me in a box. There’s no simple way out”
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a single moderate woman inspired the US to launch the “One Woman Initiative” to help nurture other women who could become forces for moderation and peaceful change.
Rice stressed that woman empowerment is a fundamental component of any relevant and effective foreign policy in today’s world. Women are increasingly being given access to more opportunities than ever before, but there is still much work to be done, Rice said at the opening ceremony of the ‘One Woman Initiative’, a public-private partnership.
“Ironically, such a hopeful idea was actually born of tragedy from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last December, just prior to the elections in Pakistan,” she said.
It is a dark time for women who have been overlooked in today’s rapidly changing global environment — those who have been denied the opportunity to go to school, to read, or to use a computer, those who do not have a legal identity, legal rights or even the right to vote, she said.
She added, “These are the women in the shadows, often with little voice in their societies, and we must respond to their needs and help them to unlock their own potential. So often, it takes only one woman to make a difference. If you empower that woman with information, and training, or a micro-loan, she can lift up her entire family and contribute to the success of her community. Multiply that one woman’s impact by a hundred or a thousand, and perhaps a million lives can change.”
The US will supply 100 million dollars for the programme, which will support women in countries with large Muslim populations.
The focus of the programme is on empowerment initiatives, including entrepreneurship, political leadership, and the rule of law.
Islamabad - The party of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was set Wednesday to decide whether to accept the resignations of cabinet members from a major partner in Pakistan's ruling coalition.
The decision will be taken in the meeting of the Central Executive Committee and Federal Council of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which is now headed by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari.
"Mr Zardari will make an announcement to this regard after the meeting tonight," said party spokesman Farhatullah Babar.
Nine ministers from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) handed in their resignations to the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday but he refused to accept them, in a bid to make last-ditch efforts to save coalition from disintegration.
The PPP and PML-N formed an alliance after thrashing the political backers of President Pervez Musharraf in February 18 parliamentary elections.
But they developed differences over how to restore more than 60 judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Musharraf sacked under an emergency order on November 3.
The move was made as the Supreme Court was expected to rule against his controversial presidential re-election for the second five-year term.
Sharif pressed for unconditional reinstatement of judges through a parliamentary resolution, followed by an executive order.
Zardari, on the other hand, has proposed a reform package limiting the judge's powers, especially those of independent-minded justice Chaudhry, who has repeatedly challenged Musharraf through his judicial activism.
Zardari believes Chaudhry's restoration with full powers could lead to a head-on-head collision between the government and president, triggering one more political crisis in the country, a key US ally in the fight against terrorism.
Unable to abridge the differences, the two leaders missed a revised, self-imposed deadline to reinstate the judges on Monday, a day after their two-day talks ended with an impasse over the issue in London.
This prompted an announcement from Sharif that his party was withdrawing its ministers from the six-week-old cabinet. However, he pledged to continue supporting the PPP-led government on issue-to- issue basis.
Analysts opine that despite Sharif's offer for continuing cooperation, the PPP-led government would from now on stand on shaky ground if the PML-N minister's resignations are accepted, further increasing the political uncertainty the country is currently facing.
Pakistan will soon submit a formal request to the United Nations for a probe into the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday.
“The letter of request is ready and it has been decided that the law minister and I will carry the letter with us and deliver it to the UN Secretary General,” Qureshi told a news conference.
He said they were waiting for an official appointment with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, saying that the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto had created confusion and that people were asking a lot of questions.
The way the matter was handled after her death has also created some confusion,” Qureshi said.
Federal Law Minister Farooq Naik said Pakistan wanted the probe to take the form of an international commission to ascertain the truth, point out culprits, financers and perpetrators of this crime.
Last month, Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a United Nations probe into Bhutto’s assassination.
The move was not surprising given that Pakistan's new government and Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz dominate parliament.
Party members and Bhutto's family have repeatedly called for such an investigation since she was killed December 27 after a campaign rally in Rawalpindi.
The resolution calls for an international inquiry into the people behind the killing. Until now, President Pervez Musharraf has balked at calls for a United Nations inquiry. His government -- before it was ousted from power after parliamentary elections in February -- had contended that Baitullah Mehsud, who as leader of the Pakistani Taliban and has ties to Al Qaeda, orchestrated the killing.
The CIA reached the same conclusion. But two nationwide polls conducted this year found that a majority of Pakistanis believe Musharraf's government was complicit in Bhutto's assassination.
The cause of Bhutto's death is not clear. Her family has refused to carry out an autopsy.
Bhutto was standing in a moving armoured car after rallying supporters for the parliamentary elections. Her head was above the roof and unprotected at the time of the attack.
A bomber blew himself up near Bhutto's limousine, and videotape showed a gunman present.
Musharraf's government concluded that Bhutto was not shot but died when the force of a bomb blast slammed her head into an escape hatch on her SUV.
Detectives from Britain's Scotland Yard -- who assisted Pakistani authorities in coming up with a "precise cause" of death -- agreed with that assessment.
But Bhutto aide Sherry Rehman -- who had been riding in the car behind Bhutto's when it was attacked -- called the government's conclusion "the most bizarre, dangerous nonsense."
The former prime minister's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has also called for an international and independent investigation, one under the auspices of the U. N.
After nearly five months of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the PPP-led Pakistan government has formally requested the United Nations to investigate her killing. A formal note has been handed over to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram who will hand it over to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking for investigation.
“Akram has left for New York and will deliver the request soon,” the Dawn quoted a Foreign Office spokesman a saying.
Pakistan has urged the UN to form a commission to expose ‘perpetrators, financiers and the mastermind’ of the December 27 assassination through an independent and impartial investigation, added the paper.
The government said that it was seeking an international probe because it suspected an ‘international conspiracy’ behind the assassination and uncovering such a conspiracy was ‘beyond the capacity of local investigators’.
Earlier, the government had planned to send a delegation to the UN, but because of some difficulties, it decided to ask its permanent representative at the UN to submit the request. “The secretary-general’s office proposed certain dates, but the foreign minister had other commitments,” said the FO statement.
The Pakistan embassy in Washington has rejected the claim revealed in a book written by India’s known journalist and writer Shyam Bhatia, that former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto had smuggled nuclear data to North Korea in 1993 during a visit to the country, and that she had confided the secret to him under the promise that he won’t reveal it in her lifetime.
“It is absurd and highly ridiculous. The book is written in a sensational style, the sourcing is weak,” said an embassy spokesman Nadeem Kiani.
“Why would a prime minister do such a thing and then disclose it to an Indian journalist knowing that Indian journalists are not known for their love for Pakistan?” the Dawn quoted him as saying.
“Bhatia has in the past also published speculative stories relating to Pakistan’s nuclear programme, the source of which has not always been authentic,” Kiani said and added it was not appropriate to soil the memory of Pakistan’s “icon of democracy”.
According to the book, “Goodbye, Shahzadi,” Benazir, while on a state visit to North Korea in 1993, smuggled critical data on uranium enrichment to help facilitate a missile deal with Pyongyang. The information could have been used to make a nuclear weapon, the report suggested.
The assertion is based on conversations that the author had with Bhutto in 2003, in which she said she would tell him a secret “so significant that I had to promise never to reveal it, at least not during her lifetime.”
He said she was killed because of her anti-American policy.
Addressing the general house meeting of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA), Baig said Benazir had initially worked out a deal with US administration to return to Pakistan, but after judging the intensity of anti-Musharraf sentiment back home, she could not toe the US line.
“Now the US is dealing with Asif Ali Zardari to achieve its interests,” the Dawn quoted him as saying.
He said the lawyers should have their own political agenda for materialising their plans, suggesting them to form a coordination committee to communicate with political parties. The imposition of emergency on November 3 created problems, which were still dragging their feet, he said and added that though Musharraf was breathing the last of his political life, some quarters were still busy hatching conspiracies.
He said the mandate of the Feb 18 elections proved to be against the US interests in the region.
Pakistan ambassador at the UN Munir Akram met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last evening and submitted a letter written by his country’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi requesting the world body to investigate the murder of the PPP leader on Dec 27 last year.
According to UN sources, Qureshi recalled the events in Pakistan which led to Bhutto’s assassination and subsequent resolutions by Pakistan’s national and provincial assemblies. They, however, refused to divulge any information about contents of the letter.
Later, Akram said that the UN chief had promised to respond to the request as soon as possible, but gave no timeline, reported the Dawn.
Confirming that the UN chief has received a letter in this regard, UN secretary general’s spokeswoman Michelle Montas said: “We are studying the letter”. She too refused to give any timeline on the response.
Earlier, it was reported that Ambassador Akram had opposed the request for a UN probe and is believed to have briefed PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the ‘consequences’ of such a move. He was supported by former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, who was reportedly removed for his opposition to such a probe.
According to one scenario, the UN chief could order an investigation himself and appoint a commission. But, if he deems that a much wider investigation is required he could ask the UN Security Council to order the investigation, like the one it instituted in the case relating to assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, in which the UN had spent over 45 million dollars without reaching any conclusion.
The United States which heads the UN Security Council for the month of June would have to submit the request to the 15-member council to make a decision on ordering any such an investigation.
“The claim that Bhutto made such an acknowledgement to an obscure journalist is a tasteless exploitation of her tragic assassination,” said PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar.
Shyam Bhatia’s book “Goodbye Shahzadi” hit the stands two weeks ago.
Babar said that Benazir had been the architect of “Benazir Nuclear Doctrine” that strictly forbade exports of nuclear technology to any country. “The accusation that she spoke of her role in nuclear black market can either come from a deceased mind or from someone of a lowly stature in life who is desperate to get some attention,” the Daily Times quoted him as saying.
Babar further said the claims that author Shyam Bhatia kept in regular touch with her were preposterous and were made only to lend credibility to his false assertions. He said that last year the Indian author wanted a 10-minute face to face interview with her for what he claimed cover story of a magazine. “Can you get me 10 minutes with her,” he had asked in his e-mail of October 7, 2007 pleading, “most important of all if we cannot talk is to go over and take a picture of her.”
“Bhutto had refused to grant a face-to-face interview, declined to be photographed and even did not accede to the request for a telephonic interview because Bhatia’s standing and credentials did not warrant it,” he claimed.
Babar said that instead Bhatia was asked to send his written questions to the media office for answers that he did, and got replies to the questions from the office, and not directly from her. “There was not one question relating to the nuclear issue in the list of questions that were replied to on her behalf by the media office. So much for the claim of his being in regular contact with her,” he maintained.
Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto’s eldest daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto (17) has reportedly been appointed as the head of the PPP’s Women Wing, a post which her mother once held, before climbing up the political ladder to reach the top political post in Pakistan.
In a TV interview, Bakhtawar pledged to carry on her mother’s political legacy. “I definitely want to help people in Pakistan. I want to continue my mom’s mission in any way I can, whether it is politics or something else - I haven’t decided yet,” the Times Online quoted her as saying in the interview.
Wearing a plain white skirt and a beige jacket, she giggled throughout the interview, said the paper.
Bakhtawar, who goes to school in Dubai, said: “I am proud to think people see me as a role model. I’m a very confident speaker and I hope all women can do what they want. I was given the opportunity. I was privileged, as you know. I was born into the family that I am in, where everything I could have was my right. Everything was equal between me and my brother and there was no discrimination between the sexes.”
Her 19-year-old brother Bilawal, an Oxford undergraduate, was appointed co-chairman of the PPP along with Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, within days of the assassination and is widely seen as a future leader of the party.
“We have been brought up to equality and everything my brother was given, I was given. In education, we went to exactly the same schools, exactly the same teachers. Education for women is as important as for men because I believe we can all have the same jobs in life,” Bakhtawar told a Pakistani satellite news channel.
Although she has clearly inherited her mother’s self-confidence, Bakhtawar has yet to adopt her sense of style.
According to the paper, Bakhtawar’s appointment has led to speculation that she, rather than her brother, might be the next star of the Bhutto dynasty. Bakhtawar’s public reminder that she is Bilawal’s equal has also raised memories of the bitter sibling rivalry that divided the Bhuttos after the death of Benazir’s father.
The Pakistan government has decided to name an airport and a hospital in Islamabad and a road in Rawalpindi after the country’s former premier and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto. According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s secretariat, the Islamabad International Airport will now be called Benazir Bhutto International Airport, the Rawalpindi General Hospital (RGH) as Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Murree Road as Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Road.
Islamabad - Supporters of Pakistan's slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday observed her 55th birthday in ceremonies across the country.
"Martyred Bhutto is still alive. Even today, she stands with me, with you," her widower Asif Ali Zardari told a press conference after laying flowers at her grave and reciting verses from the Koran in her home town of Noudero.
Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide attack on December 27 during an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near capital Islamabad.
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