UN probe of Benazir assassination flawed: Zardari

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Monday said the UN probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has certain flaws in it.

“We decided to go for the probe by UN to ensure impartiality,” he said while addressing a gathering marking the third death anniversary of Bhutto in Nodero, her ancestral village in Sindh province.

“However, we have reservations on findings of the probe report,” Zardari, the leader of Pakistan Peoples Party, said, adding that “the party will take the investigations to their logical end”.

“I want to make it clear that we don’t want to take revenge from anybody because democracy is the best revenge,” he said, adding that “the current regime is a transition from democracy to dictatorship”.

“We made Pervez Musharraf leave the presidency and he is now forced to live in exile. We want him to beg for permission (to return home) and then we’ll think about it,” he remarked.

A three-member UN panel that investigated Bhutto’s killing said in April that the government of then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf had failed to provide Bhutto with adequate security despite threats to her life.

Bhutto was assassinated Dec 27, 2007 after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi.

After Bhutto’s death, her husband, Zardari, assumed co-chairmanship of the party that contested elections in February 2008 riding on the sympathy wave and formed a coalition government at the centre.