ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Friday threatened to lodge a formal complaint with the United Nations regarding the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto if the government failed to send a formal request to the world body for investigating into the death of the slain PPP leader.

Speaking at a news conference, PPP central secretary finance Senator Babar Awan said the party believed that Chapter 6 of the UN Charter allowed individuals to directly contact the UN for investigating the crimes like the assassination of Ms Bhutto on its own if the government refused to use the option of sending a formal request to the world’s highest international body.

He said the party had the right to register with the UN what he called an FIR on the basis of the e-mail sent by Benazir Bhutto to Mark Siegel. “We are left with no other option but to register the FIR with the UN as the government is not showing any seriousness in unveiling the murderers of Benazir Bhutto,” Mr Awan maintained. He said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had constituted delegations that would leave for foreign countries to convince them of putting pressure on the Pakistan government to conduct the investigations into assassination of Ms Bhutto under the auspices of the UN.

A two-member delegation comprising Babar Awan and Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali will approach the European Union countries. Similarly, PPP central secretary information Sherry Rehman and Senator Javed Leghari will leave for the US and Senator Farooque A. Naik will contact the UN in this regard.

Accusing the government of resorting to delaying tactics, Senator Awan said the authorities were bound under Article 173 to present challan of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in a court of law within 14 days, but even after 16 days of the murder no challan had been submitted.

“These deliberate delaying tactics on the part of government in presenting the challan is a clear indication that the regime is not serious in probing the murder of Ms Bhutto”, he said, adding that in the last 16 days, the government had not shown any progress in the investigations to the nation.