ISLAMABAD, Aug 27 Attorney General Latif Khosa said on Thursday he had no idea if former president Pervez Musharraf was a suspect in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and that the government had never asked the UN probe commission to include him in its inquiry.

“I do not know whether Musharraf is a suspect but the government has not made any recommendations (to the UN commission) to investigate him,” Mr Khosa told reporters after a meeting with two members of the United Nations probe commission at his office.

Senior analyst Milbert Shin and political affairs officer Suman Pradhan, members of the six-man commission, met Mr Khosa to familiarise themselves with the legal procedures in Pakistan.

Though Mr Khosa did not divulge what he had said to the UN team, he explained that nobody enjoyed any constitutional immunity if involved in criminal cases.

“It is my duty to share whatever information I have as a senior law officer and a common citizen since I was close to Ms Bhutto who usually consulted me on legal and election matters,” the AG recalled.

In his opinion, he said, the assassination of Ms Bhutto was a continuation of an earlier bid on her life at Karsaz in Karachi when she returned to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile.

The UN commission was required to complete its probe in six months, he said, adding that whatever he had told them was duly recorded. The UN investigators, he said, had requested him to provide some documents and dossiers, especially the election petitions the PPP had filed before the Election Commission.

Answering a question, Mr Khosa said the UN commission enjoyed the authority to summon or force a particular person to appear before it or even go to him if it considered necessary to quiz him.

“We want to give the UN commission a free hand to reach the truth,” he said, adding the government had never asked for a trial for the assassination of Ms Bhutto by an international tribunal.

He said the special investigation group of the Federal Investigation Agency, which was independently investigating the case, could use the evidence collected by the UN commission.

Referring to a similar case pending before an anti-terrorist court, he said the court had a list of 87 witnesses and three of them had been examined, but the federal government had requested it to wait for the outcome of the UN probe.

The attorney general had earlier told reporters that no public office-holder or government employee, of any status or rank, was beyond the reach of the UN commission which had access to any person inside Pakistan.

The commission will submit its findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who will share the report with the Security Council and send a copy to Pakistan. However, any action on the report will be the prerogative of the government of Pakistan.