Pakistan officially asks UN to probe Bhutto slaying

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UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (AFP): Pakistan's new government has officially asked the United Nations to investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last December, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Friday.

She said the request was contained in a letter from Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi delivered to UN chief Ban Ki-moon by the Pakistani ambassador here Friday.

The UN has already hinted that the request was unlikely to be approved, notably because no foreign country is suspected of involvement in the Bhutto murder.

UN sources also say the cost of such a probe would be prohibitively expensive for uncertain results, six months after the slaying.

Former premier Bhutto was slain in a suicide and gun attack at an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on December 27, triggering days of deadly riots across the country.