ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: The government of Pakistan on Monday declared that if needed it would seek international help for the probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and underscored that all efforts would be made to ascertain facts.

“The government is committed to a thorough and transparent investigation and will not shy away from receiving assistance from outside, if needed,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Sadiq said in a statement issued here.

“No effort will be spared to establish the facts,” he noted.

Notably, earlier the interior ministry had outright rejected calls for international help in the probe.

Asserting that the government of Pakistan was making every effort to “comprehensively investigate the dastardly assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto”, spokesperson Sadiq observed: “We owe this to the people of Pakistan and to the family of the former prime minister.”

The Foreign Office spokesperson said this while reacting to the US presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton’s reported statement pointing to Pakistan army’s involvement in the assassination of Ms Bhutto.

“We take strong exception to the report that has twisted certain remarks by Senator Hillary Clinton to suggest that “Pakistan troops might have killed Bhutto” as carried by Newsday of December 30, 2007,” he said, adding: “We reject such ridiculous, absurd and sinister insinuations that reek of animus against Pakistan and intent to see Pakistan destabilized.”

His note of caution was: “We also expect that responsible leaders and public figures in the US would refrain from making statements that are likely to be distorted and misused and could further upset the people who are still in a state of shock because of the national tragedy.”

Later when Dawn sought the Foreign Office’s view from spokesperson Sadiq on the mounting calls for international assistance into the investigations, he said in the interest of transparency if required the government would be open to it.Asked if it had been decided yet whether “outside assistance” was required, he said that was for the interior ministry to determine.

The spokesperson was evasive on the question of international offers for the probe into Ms Bhutto’s assassination. Without going into the specifics he stated: “There have been some offers.”

Meanwhile, sources close to the government ruled out the possibility of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri type UN investigation into the death of Ms Bhutto, saying Lebanon’s case was different as unlike Pakistan it had a history of UN involvement.