UN commission probing Benazir assassination to submit report on March 31

ISLAMABAD - Head of the three member UN Commission probing the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Heraldo Munoz has said that the commission would submit its final report to the Pakistan government on March 31.

The commission’s findings would be submitted to the US Secretary General Ban ki Moon, and would also be shared with the Pakistan government, a UN spokesperson said.

The inquiry commission was to submit its report by 31st December 2009 , but it had sought an extension in its term, as its work was severely affected by the poor law and order situation in Pakistan.

Earlier this week, the commission met several high profile persons in Pakistan, including the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt.Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

The commission had also grilled former President General Pervez Musharraf, who is currently in London.

Pakistan had called for a UN commission to probe the assassination of the two-time Prime Minister who was killed at a campaign rally at Rawalpindi on December 27 2007, after her supporters were angered by conflicting accounts from the then-government of how she died.

The international commission is primarily a fact-finding team in nature and its mandate is only to determine the facts and circumstances of the assassination.

The duty of determining criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of the assassination remains with the Pakistani authorities. (ANI)