WASHINGTON, Jan 4: The US State Department has said that Pakistan makes its own decisions on issues like security, investigations and elections and Washington only provides advice when asked.

“Occasionally, if asked, we provide our best advice. But it is not for us to make decisions for individuals who are foreign government officials or former government officials”, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing.

Mr McCormack was commenting on Islamabad’s decision to seek the assistance of Britain’s Scotland Yard in the probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“As for the probe that is on-going, President Musharraf has asked for outside technical assistance. That’s a wise course that’s he’s taken in the best interest of Pakistan and the Pakistani people”, he said.

“We’ll see how that investigation plays out. I’m not going to try to jump in and handicap what the results of the investigation may be. I think from our perspective, for our purposes it’s best to let the investigation unfold and see what it brings,” he said. “We all mourn the passing of Benazir Bhutto. Now it’s important to try to determine what happened.”