Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has asked Britain and the US to help Pakistan in probing last week's bomb blasts on her convoy in Karachi that killed nearly 140 people.
LONDON: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has asked Britain and the US to help Pakistan in probing last week's bomb blasts on her convoy in Karachi that killed nearly 140 people.
Bhutto said she had no confidence in the official investigation and blamed 'elements within the government' but not President Pervez Musharraf for the twin blasts.
"I have discussed this with diplomats of some countries, including Britain," she told a paper in Karachi, calling for "an independent and impartial inquiry into all aspects of the assassination attempt".
She said "We want the Government of Pakistan to seek the assistance of the international community" in sending those "who have technical expertise to investigate crimes of this nature."
Bhutto said the attack had been made possible by sabotage of the street lights, and that the inquiry should focus on why they were turned off "for hours and hours".
All those on her armoured campaign lorry 'were worried the moment the lights went out', she said. "Our guards were looking out for someone who was bulky. The bomber always has to be bulky."
Urging Musharraf to appoint a new head of the investigation, she said Manzoor Mughal, the man currently in charge of the probe, was "one of the officers at the police centre in Karachi when my husband was brutally tortured and nearly died in 1999."
Bhutto said she may soon go to Larkana, her family home in southern Sindh province, and to Islamabad, where she may meet President Musharraf.
Bhutto, who has given the President the names of three officials who she believes plotted to kill her, said that she had "not gone public because I don't want this to cloud my relations with the Government".
Asked whether she would back the return of Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister who was deposed by President Musharraf in a 1999 military coup, Bhutto said she was "personally in favour of all political personalities being able to campaign within Pakistan for elections in January. But his situation is complicated."
Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia by Musharraf when he attempted to return last month "and it is for him to resolve" with the Saudi and Pakistani governments," she said.
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