Theories that Zardari was behind Benazir Bhutto's killing baseless: UN commission

Conspiracy theories that Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari was behind the assassination of his wife Benazir Bhutto to grab power are "baseless", the head of the UN commission investigating her death said today.Heraldo Munoz, the head of the panel and also Chile's UN ambassador, said in the course of the inquiry the panel ranacross numerous versions of who could have been the culprit and who could have benefited from Bhutto's assassination."Some of them were merely opinions giving names with no facts behind," he told reporters, while releasing the 65-page report which said the incident could have been avoided if the then military ruler Pervez Mushraff's regime had taken steps to protect her."In this particular case these versions that involved Zardari and other member of his family simply had no basis, no evidence to be treated as credible hypothesis so that even though we heard those we felt such conspiracy theories were more the fruit of a lack of a proper investigation and that led to wild theories," he said.The Zardari government has faced criticism for not putting a proper domestic investigation in place since he became president, nearly two years ago.But, this is an internal matter, Munoz said."What led to the present government to take 18 months to initiate a further investigation that is up to the competent authorities to respond," he said.The inquiry commission was set up in 2009 to ascertain the facts and circumstances of Bhutto's death."A range of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Bhutto and to investigate with vigour all those responsible for her murder not only in the execution of the attack but also in its conception, planning and financing," Munoz said. "The responsibility for Bhutto's security on the day of the assassination rested with the federal government, the government of Punjab and the Rawalpindi district police... none of these entities took the necessary measures to respond to the extraordinary fresh and urgent security risk that they knew she faced," he said.