WASHINGTON, Jan 23: A PPP team, visiting Washington to lobby for democracy in Pakistan, urged lawmakers on Wednesday to support the party’s demand for a UN-led probe into Benazir Bhutto’s murder.

The delegation also urged the lawmakers to use their influence to ensure that the Feb 18 elections were fair and free.

Senator Javaid R. Laghari and PPP Information Secretary Sherry Rehman also solicited US support in their party’s efforts to unearth the names of the people behind Ms Bhutto’s assassination.

“We are not interested in knowing who pulled the trigger,” said Senator Laghari. “We want to know who is behind this heinous crime.”

Ms Rehman claimed that the government had already started implementing its plan for rigging the elections and unless the international community intervenes, the elections will not be fair.

The PPP delegation plans to meet at least 14 US senators or their staff members, 15 key committee chairpersons and staff members from the House of Representatives and get a hearing from senior members of the Bush administration and convey their concerns to them.

The delegation made its first presentation at Washington’s Brookings Institution where they discussed the upcoming elections and the future of the PPP after Ms Bhutto’s assassination with a select group of US lawmakers, academics and media representatives.

In their meetings with US lawmakers on Wednesday, they pointed out that the way PPP supporters rallied behind their central leadership after Ms Bhutto’s assassination. They claimed that if the elections were not rigged, the party would easily win enough votes to form the next government.

In a fair election, the religious parties would not get more than 5 per cent votes. “The fight against terrorism is PPP’s fight as well,” said Ms Rehman while assuring the US administration that an elected government would be more effective in fighting extremists than a military government.

Senator Laghari said that his party wanted a UN-led probe into Ms Bhutto’s murder because the government had given only a “limited mandate” to the Scotland Yard. He noted that after an attempt on President Musharraf in December 2003, the government did not remove the debris for three days while it washed the site of Ms Bhutto’s murder on the same day.

This and other developments, he said, had forced PPP to seek a UN-led probe. “We want the US administration and Congress to support our demand.”