January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

LAHORE, Jan 14: PPP Senator Farooq H. Naek said on Monday that the government had failed to discharge its legal duties by not carrying out autopsy on the body of Benazir Bhutto.

Reacting to remarks made by President Pervez Musharraf in an interview, he said now that the PPP leader had been buried, the government no longer had the authority to get it exhumed. “In fact a decision on exhumation could be taken only by Asif Ali Zardari and other family members.”

He said that under Section 174 of CrPC, police, on coming to know about the assassination of Ms Bhutto, were under legal duty to inform the nearest magistrate and prepare a report, in the presence of witnesses, on the apparent cause of death, describing wounds and mark of injury and the instrument that might have been used to inflict it.

Mr Naek said the government -- for mala fide reasons -- had confused the cause of death.

Answering a question, he said that a 48-hour deadline given by the PPP to the government for sending a request to the United Nations for an inquiry into the assassination would end on Tuesday evening.

Thereafter, he said, the PPP would send its own request to the world body. When pointed out that the Scotland Yard team was reported to have found the involvement of Al Qaeda, Mr Naek said this substantiated the PPP’s argument that the matter required an international investigation.

Answering a question, the PPP senator said the president was only head of the state and seeking a UN investigation was beyond his power. He said that the prime minister was the right person to take a decision in this regard and it was, therefore, the PPP had sent a request to him.