Bhutto seeks probe into Pak govt playing host to drug smuggler

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has demanded a judicial probe in how the Pakistan government had played host to a man posing as a minister from Equatorial Guinea. The man, Santos Pascal Bikomo Nanguande, was caught in Madrid with 15 kg of heroin while returning home.

Nanguande came to Pakistan about two weeks ago, claiming he was the minister in Equatorial Guinea, a country which does not have an embassy in Islamabad. The visit was arranged by Pakistan's embassy in Spain.

Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan, however, claimed it was the information ministry that had invited Nanguande.

It was not clear whether he visited Pakistan as a foreign minister or an information minister. It was claimed that he was a minister when the visit was arranged but he reached Pakistan only after he was sacked. Nanguande met important Pakistani personalities, including President Farooq Leghari.

Bhutto's statement, issued from London, sought an inquiry by a supreme court judge to find who had arranged the visit and whether any government office was involved in smuggling Nanguande's drug deals.

''Can a person, posing as a minister, officially visit Pakistan, meet the president and leave the country only to be caught with heroin worth millions of dollars without implicating in some way the head of the state himself?'' she asked.