'UN report on Bhutto assassination a pack of lies'

Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf's close aide Rashid Qureshi has described the United Nations commission's enquiry report on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination as a 'pack of lies'.

Qureshi said the probe report, which blamed the then Musharraf government of 'deliberately' failing to probe the December 2007 gun and bomb attack on Bhutto, was based on rumours and that Musharraf cannot be blamed for the attack.

Noting that Musharraf had himself been targeted by suicide bombers on numerous occasions, Qureshi said, "The chief UN investigator was not the relative of Sherlock Homes."

"Benazir Bhutto and her chief security officer Rehman Malik decided to go ahead with their planned election rally. It was Bhutto who exposed herself to the attacker," The News quoted Qureshi as saying.

The three-member UN commission's report said that Bhutto's death could have been avoided if the Musharraf government had taken adequate security measures.

The enquiry commission, headed by Chilean Ambassador to the UN Heraldo Munoz, in its 65-page report said that none of the concerned authorities from the federal government to the Punjab and the Rawalpindi district police took necessary action to prevent the terror attack on Bhutto, despite having information regarding the threat posed by extremists.