ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has urged Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to commute the death sentence of Saddam Hussain’s co-defendants Brazan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed Al-Bandar.

In a letter addressed to the Iraqi president on Friday, the former prime minister said: “It is not my purpose to condone the deeds they have been accused of but at times the act of forgiveness can have a most powerful humane impact.”

The letter was delivered to the Iraqi Ambassador in Islamabad by PPP Foreign Liaison Committee president Senator Enver Baig.

In her letter, the text of which was released by the party’s media centre, Ms Bhutto said: “I write this letter with reference to the hanging of former president Saddam Hussain. Rightly or wrongly, there is a wide perception that the manner of the hanging of Saddam Hussain amounted to a sectarian execution. I worry that such a perception may deepen divisions within the Muslim world between the Shia and the Sunni community.”

Ms Bhutto said: “The Muslim world internally can avoid bloodshed and violence if it can rise about sectarian violence. I believe that you can take a step towards healing the Muslim world by commuting the death sentences of President Saddam’s co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, former Intelligence Chief and Awad Ahmed Al-Bandar, former chief justice, Supreme Court Republic of Iraq”.