Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said today his government would this week discuss with UN leader Ban Ki-Moon its progress in requesting the United Nations to probe former prime minister Benazir Bhutto s assassination.

"Very soon we are evolving a strategy for that," Gilani replied, when asked whether his government would convey its request for a probe to the UN Secretary General, who is expected to arrive in Pakistan Wednesday.

Gilani said that his government wanted a probe by the United Nations because it did not want the investigations to be "prejudiced and politicised."

After Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide bomb attack during an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007,Pakistan asked the UN to establish a commission to investigate the killing.

Last December, a spokesman for Ban said the UN leader hoped such a commission could be established soon but that further consultation with Pakistan "was needed to examine the commission s structure, including its scope and mandate."

The Pakistani government has accused tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud of plotting Bhutto s murder, a charge he denies.

The assassination threw the world s only nuclear-armed Islamic nation into chaos, sparking violence and leading to months of political turmoil that ended in September when her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, claimed the presidency.
Source : PTI