UN chief informs UNSC about his intention to appoint body to probe BB's slaying

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has informed the Security Council of his intention to establish a commission to probe the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a UN spokesperson said Tuesday. "The Secretary-General has sent a letter to the president of the Security Council of his intention to appoint a three-member commission of inquiry," Spokesperson Marie Okabe told The Nation. Pakistan had formally requested the UN chief to establish a fact-finding commission in July last year to investigate the slaying of Ms. Bhutto at the end of an election rally in Rawalpindi on Dec. 27, 2007. Other UN officials said the 15-member council would take a note of the secretary general's intention to appoint the commission, which he is expected to announce during his official visit to Islamabad on Wednesday. According to indications, the names of the commission members would be shown to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani before making them public. The commission is expected to look into all the information provided to it by the Pakistan's interior ministry and the Scotland yard but would make it's own independent conclusions. It would then submit its findings to the secretary-general and the Pakistan government.

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