A Pakistani newspaper on Thursday reported that Pakistan President Asif Zardari has given names of four international personalities - US ex-secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Saudi Arabia intelligence chief Prince Muqrin and the UAE intelligence chief - to the UN inquiry commission to question them as to how they knew in advance that his wife would be killed.
Rauf Klasra reporting for The News, Islamabad, reports that the UN commission has now been asked to first meet these four personalities before submitting its report on Benazir Bhutto assassination.
The report says, this was the reason why the UN Inquiry Commission report on Benazir killing has been delayed. Zardari gave names of these four persons to the UN commission through Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN Hussain Haroon. Haroon held extensive talks with the UN team in New York to convince them as to why it was important to interview these four personalities, the report says.
President Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar confirmed that it was true that the Pakistan government wanted three friendly countries to share their information with the UN.
Babar said: “We want comments of three friendly foreign governments which had warned Benazir Bhutto of plots to assassinate her around time of her return included in the UN report. One foreign country government has shared its perspective with the UN commission. We hope the other two governments will also share their perspective. That hopefully will help the commission in its task. Hence the two weeks delay,” he said. However, Babar did not deny the names of three countries and former US secretary of state as revealed in this news report.
Meanwhile, sources said President Zardari was not satisfied with the UN report after he came to know that the high level commission which was paid over half a billion rupees by the Pakistan government to meet its expenses, did not contact these four international personalities, who at different occasions had warned Benazir Bhutto about threats to her life before she returned to Pakistan.
Zardari, the report says, himself knew the information given by these four personalities to Benazir Bhutto as Benazir always kept her spouse in the loop about such warnings.
Benazir, the report says, had also told Zardari after meeting Hamid Karzai in Islamabad, hours before her assassination, that he had informed her that the Afghan intelligence agency too had information about the possible attack on her life. Zardari is of the view that these four personalities were in a good position to help the UN commission to know from where they got the information about the conspiracy. The UN inquiry commission after receiving the names of these four persons, is contacting all of them to seek explanations from them about the sources.
Zardari believes that the real information if shared by these personalities would greatly help in identifying the real conspirators behind Benazir's killing.
Asked about the inclusion of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's name in the list of witnesses, sources told The News that a few hours before her assassination on December 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto was informed by Karzai about threats to her life.
Sources told the newspaper that former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also a potential witness because the US had provided a steady stream of intelligence to Benazir Bhutto about threats against her and advised her aides on how to boost security.
The source said senior US diplomats had multiple conversations, including at least two private face-to-face meetings, with top members of the Pakistan People's Party to discuss threats to Benazir's life.
