Pak asked UN to probe Bhutto’s murder to stay clear of accusations: Zardari

October 2nd, 2009 ROME - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has assured Pope Benedict XVI that his government would ensure that blasphemy laws are not used against Christians. During their meeting here, the Pope had asked Zardari to guarantee protection of minority Christians and ensure that a Gojra-like violence doesn't get repeated.

September 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A third UN team has arrived here to probe the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The six-member team is scheduled to meet former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and other political leaders, as also officials of the interior ministry and the law enforcement agencies.

September 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has revealed that former President General Pervez Musharraf had stepped down from the Presidency as a part of a deal which was facilitated by 'international and local' guarantors. "All international and local powers, which have stakes in the region, were guarantors of General Pervez Musharraf's negotiated resignation," Zardari told media person during an Iftar party here.

August 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed that the Taliban has been defeated in the Swat Valley. In an interview with the News ahead of his meeting with US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Zardari said Pakistan was a united nation and would always stand united against its enemy.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has rebuffed aspersions regarding his involvement in former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Addressing a seminar at the Committee House of the British Parliament here, Musharraf rejected allegations that he did not provide a fool-proof security to the former premier.

July 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The UN inquiry commission probing the assassination of the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has completed its first round of investigations and left the country. During its three-day stay in Pakistan, the commission met President Asif Ali Zardari, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Interior Advisor Rehman Malik.

July 14th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - Two officials of the United Nations technical assessment team paid a surprise visit to the spot in Liaquat Bagh where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack on December 27, 2007. A senior police official on Monday said that the UN officials visited Liaquat Bagh to assess the security arrangements in the area and its surroundings, in order to ensure foolproof arrangements for members of the UN Commission due to arrive in Pakistan to probe Benazir's murder.

May 14th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan has asked the United States to hand over the 'ownership' and not only 'control' of the drones operating inside its territory. Referring to Washington's decision to give Islamabad control over the drone strikes in the tribal regions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said such 'half measures' would be of no use.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has alleged that elusive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a US operator who had tried to destabilise his late wife Benazir Bhutto's government back in 1989. In fact, as premier Bhutto had 'warned America about Osama bin Laden in 1989 with a call to then US president George H.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said he is eager to start talks with India soon to establish peace between both the nations. Zardari, who is in Washington to take part in a trilateral summit with his US and Afghanistan counterparts, said he was waiting for the Indian general elections to get over so that peace initiatives could be resumed, which was disrupted after the heightened tension in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

April 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that his country's intelligence believes that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, but they have no proof to back their claims. "The Americans tell me they don't know, and they are much more equipped than us to trace him.

April 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has assured a judicial investigation into the killing of the three Baloch leaders that caused rampant riots in Balochistan.The government will leave no stone unturned to expose the culprits involved in the murder of the Baloch leaders," The Nation quoted Zardari, as saying. Zardari, along with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani interacted with PPP parliamentarians from NWFP at Monday at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

March 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is keen to ensure a smooth passage of his address to the joint sitting of parliament, scheduled for the first week of April to set off new parliamentary year. Zardari told Prime Minister Gilani to make sure that there is no protest or walkout when he addresses the joint sitting, The Nation reports.

January 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that United Nations would likely to investigate into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported Saturday. Qureshi said there was a possibility that United Nations would soon announce the setting up of a fact-finding mission to probe Bhutto's assassination.

December 26th, 2008 LONDON - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari may be suppressing the investigation into the assassination of his wife Benazir Bhutto, a British newspaper reported Saturday quoting members of his own ruling party. 'It is intriguing why the government has not even ordered any investigation into Ms Bhutto's killing,' Safdar Abbasi, a senator belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was quoted saying in the Times newspaper.