By IRNA
Islamabad : Pakistan Peoples Party has welcomed the call by US Speaker of the House for international probe in the assassination of former Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and for free and fair elections in Pakistan.
Speaking of the house floor Thursday Speaker Nancy Pelosi citing “the tremendous contribution of Benazir Bhutto to the cause of democracy”, demanded “strong international investigation of this despicable crime” and asked the Bush Administration to “continue to press the Pakistani government to ensure that the coming election is free and fair”.
Speaker Pelosi also said, “the best way the United States can honor the legacy of Benazir Bhutto is to renew our engagement directly with the people of Pakistan.”
Earlier Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton had also called a “full, independent, international investigation”.
In a statement spokesperson of the Peoples Party former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the Party would tenaciously pursue demand for a UN probe and had already sent letters to the UN Secretary General and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
He said that the UN had also offered to hold investigations if request was made by the government of Pakistan.
It had also called upon the world community to help in exposing “the organizers, perpetrators and financiers” of the assassination plot, but the regime had declined to accept the demand, he said.
“The more the regime runs away from UN probe the more it strengthens the suspicion that it was hiding something”.
Even if the regime refuses to accept the demand the Party will take up the request with the UN when it forms the government after the elections, he said.