ISLAMABAD United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is expected to announce a commission for investigating the 2007 slaying of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when he visits Islamabad on February 4.

'Secretary General Moon would announce the commission during his forthcoming visit to Pakistan,' a senior diplomatic source confirmed to Dawn on Tuesday.

The UN had few weeks back proposed to Pakistan the terms of reference for instituting an independent inquiry commission into the circumstance of the killing of Ms Bhutto.

Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq had earlier told this reporter that the UN was in an advanced stage of instituting the inquiry.

Pakistan had in June requested for the probe calling upon the UN to constitute a commission to expose through independent and impartial investigations the culprits, perpetrators, financiers and mastermind behind the December 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack after a political rally in Rawalpindi.

The government said that it was seeking an international probe because it suspected an 'international conspiracy' behind the assassination of the PPP leader. It further said that investigating an international conspiracy was beyond the capacity of the local investigators.

Later in July, Foreign Minister Qureshi visited UN Headquarters to discuss with the Secretary General Moon Pakistan's request for the investigation.

On that occasion a broad understanding was reached on such issues as the nature of the Commission, funding modalities, composition, unhindered access to all sources of relevant information, and elements to safeguard its objectivity, impartiality and independence.

However, discussions within the UN and between UN and Pakistan government continued examining other modalities and the Commissions structure, including the scope and mandate.

Among other complex issues that were discussed during the course of seven month deliberations, the trickier ones were the financing of the inquiry, access of the investigators to relevant information and the level of cooperation from government agencies.

There have been different figures about the cost of the probe in the media, but the government has not yet officially revealed as to how much the UN had demanded to undertake the investigations.

This, it should be recalled, is the second request for a probe into Benazir Bhutto's killing. PPP, before coming into power, had in January written a letter to Secretary General Moon and other permanent members of the Security Council seeking establishment of an independent international commission.

On that occasion PPP had based its demand for the commission on its lack of trust in the investigating process in Pakistan and the commitment of the then government for reaching a 'satisfactory and credible' conclusion.

However, PPP request on that occasion was turned down by the UN saying such a request should come through the 'executive branch' of the government in Pakistan.

The then government had opposed the international probe led by UN, although it had allowed limited investigations by a Scotland Yard tem to ascertain the cause of death.