PM not President should have asked UN to delay Report

ISLAMABAD Barely any sense can be made of the Governments request to the United Nations to halt the publication of UN Commissions report on Benazir Bhuttos assassination when the two inquiry reports to be come from the 'stakeholder countries would not impact the Commissions findings. No alterations, corrections, modifications or recompilations would take place even if the inquiry reports of two countries do not tally with the UN Commissions report. The Commission, under the powers vested in its mandate, has taken notes of every single aspect related to the circumstances and scenario of Benazir Bhuttos murder. This is a comprehensive report compiled by the highly skilled individuals who have acquired command in their areas of expertise over years of diligent experience. Theres no such possibility of any changes in the UN Commissions findings whatsoever, it was heard from highly placed sources within the international body. It may be mentioned here that it rests with the head of Governments discretion to communicate to the UN on an issue related to administrative or security related matters. Any request to be made pertaining to Benazir Bhuttos assassination, a subject of the Interior Ministry, is prerogative of the PM since the Ministry is subordinated to the PM not the President. Also, it is learnt that the two pending reports, presumably from Saudi Arabia and UAE, are not likely to be made public any sooner, not before April 15, when the UN Commission submits its report to the Secretary General. Again, the grounds on which President Zardari requested extension in the publication of the Commissions report hold no validity of logic. The Presidents Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar told this scribe the other day that the Government of Pakistan would deem the findings of UN Commission as inappropriate and incomplete if the UNs Commissions did not incorporated the observations of those two pending reports. However, the Government has failed to establish any logic between the inquiry reports of the two countries and the UN Commissions report when the same would not be given any changes. Some credible UN officials who justify the acceptance of President Zardaris request by the UN SG Ban Ki Moon cite that the UN generally obliges the requests coming from head of states or head of governments as a goodwill gesture, but it does not indicate that the international body subscribes to the terms of such calls. The UN based sources told this newspaper on Thursday that the date of the submission of UN Commissions report on Benazir Bhutto was decided last month. Neither the Presidency nor PM Secretariat made any scheduled request beforehand. Rather, the Presidency exhibited urgent haste and that too, in the last hour that completely disturbed UN Pakistans holiday schedule. The employees of the international organisation were uncertain about three-day holidays, which were given on the eve of submission of the said report but were cancelled on Tuesday night. Majority of UN personnel from far-fetched areas had left for their hometowns to celebrate long weekends, but had to return back following the cancellation of the given holidays.

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