U.N. asked to investigate Bhutto killing

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 31 (UPI) -- The United Nations has been formally asked to investigate the assassination of slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a Foreign Office official says.

The unidentified official said Munir Akram, Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, is personally delivering a formal request to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding Bhutto's death on Dec. 27, the Pakistan Dawn said Saturday.

"Mr. Akram has left for New York and will deliver the request soon," the official said.

The official said Pakistan's request for an impartial probe into the political assassination is seeking "perpetrators, financiers and the mastermind" of the highly publicized killing.

The Pakistani government was forced to seek an international investigation into Bhutto's death due to a suspected "international conspiracy" behind the 2007 killing, the official said.

The Dawn said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also travel to New York to lobby for the proposed U.N. investigative commission.