February 22, 2008	Friday	Safar 14, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 21: A senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party said on Thursday the government should show moral courage and approach the United Nations forthwith with the request that the world body investigate the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto.

Senator Dr Babar Awan said while talking to Dawn that if the demand remained unmet, the PPP on coming to power would take up the matter with the United Nations.

The PPP had recently asked the UN to probe into the tragedy but was told that the world body could not do so unless the request was made by the Pakistan government.

The government says that Scotland Yard has come up with a report after which there is no need for a UN-led investigation.

Asked who the PPP would like to be investigated for alleged involvement in the assassination, Dr Awan said: “All relevant evidence will be thrashed out by the commission to be formed by the United Nations. That’s why the PPP is not playing any blame game”.

In her email to her lobbyist Mark Siegel in the United States, Ms Bhutto had said that President Musharraf alone would be responsible if something happened to her.

She had also written a letter to President Musharraf before returning to Pakistan from eight years in exile on October 18 in which she had identified four people who could be involved in a plot against her.

They included two chief ministers, head of an intelligence agency and a former senior official of the National Accountability Bureau.

Asked about the status of these emails vis-à-vis the demand for a UN-led investigation, Dr Awan said: “We want the UN to unearth the entire truth and unveil the faces behind the assassination of the PPP chairperson”.

He said so far the government had done nothing to book the culprits who eliminated a leader of international stature from the political scene.