The submission of the much-awaited report of the United Nations fact-finding Commission on the assassination of the former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, has been delayed by a fortnight on the “urgent request” of President Asif Ali Zardari.
This was confirmed here late on Tuesday night by the United Nations country spokesperson Ishrat Rizvi. She said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted the request of the President. The report would now be submitted on April 15.
Maintaining that the President did not make any “urgent request,” his spokesman Farhatullah Babar said a request was made to the U.N. to delay the report till the panel got inputs from all three heads of government, who had separately warned Ms. Bhutto about a clear and present threat to her life just ahead of her assassination.
According to Mr. Babar, the three heads of government separately warned Ms. Bhutto personally that they had credible information about threat to her life. While he refused to name them, he said it was important that the Commission included their inputs in the report as they appeared to have access to credible information.
Till date, the Commission received a report from only one of the three heads of government and the other two were expected to send in their inputs shortly, Mr. Babar said.
This is the second time that the submission of the report on the December 2007 assassination has been delayed. After agreeing to the Pakistan government's request to initiate an independent investigation in July 2008, the Secretary-General set up a three-member commission under Chile Ambassador to the U. N. Heraldo Munoz. It was to have submitted its report on December 31, 2009.
However, the Commission — mandated to identify the facts and circumstances of the assassination — sought a three-month extension.
Confirmation of the submission of the report being further delayed came round about the time when it was to be presented to the Secretary-General.
