Bhutto report: 'We knew Musharraf was responsible'

Pakistan on Friday expressed its satisfaction over a United Nations panel's report on the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto, saying it had vindicated its stand that former dictator-turned-president Pervez Musharraf's regime was responsible for her assassination in 2007.

President Asif Ali Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the report submitted by the UN commission that probed Bhutto's murder and the news conference by the panel's chairman Heraldo Munoz had proved the ruling Pakistan People's Party's reservations that Musharraf's regime was responsible for the former premier's killing in a gun and suicide attack.

"We always insisted that the government led by former President Musharraf was responsible for the killing of Benazir Bhutto," Babar said.

The UN panel's report has raised questions about the Musharraf regime's decision of only alerting Bhutto about security threats to her life, without framing any security plan to protect her, he said.

Babar also said the report had completely cleared Zardari and his family of being involved in any way in Bhutto's killing.

The PPP will present a detailed response to the UN panel's report after it carries out a thorough review of its findings, he said.

However, he noted that the UN commission did not have the mandate to point out Bhutto's killers and the Pakistan government will launch an investigation to trace the killers.

The panel's report, presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Pakistan's permanent representative to the world body Hussain Haroon, has indicted the previous regime led by Musharraf for failing to provide effective security to Bhutto despite numerous threats to her life.

The report also found numerous faults with the probe into Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi during an election rally in December 2007.

The former PPP chairperson was killed shortly after addressing an election rally in the garrison city.

Her party came to power in the general election held the following year and her widower Zardari became President shortly thereafter.

The UN commission is the second foreign panel to probe Bhutto's assassination. A team of experts from Britain's Scotland Yard had earlier conducted a probe to determine the cause of Bhutto's death.