NEW YORK, July 13: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has questioned the guilt of a key Taliban suspect fingered by the CIA and Pakistan’s previous government in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, suggesting a wider conspiracy was behind her death.

On Thursday, the United Nations agreed to help in setting up an independent commission to investigate those whom Mr Qureshi called “the conspirers, the financiers, the perpetrators that led to motivating this assassination, and bring them to justice.”

“Why a person, who had come with a message of reconciliation…why was she eliminated? Who were the forces behind it? What objectives did they have? Why were they considering Benazir Bhutto a threat to them?” asked the foreign minister in an interview on Saturday.

He declined to endorse accusations by the then Musharraf’s government and the CIA that Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had orchestrated Benazir’s murder.“The point is we do not want to make premature allegations, because we want an impartial, independent inquiry,” Mr Qureshi said.

“We cannot jump to conclusions before the investigation is started,” he added.

“What I’m saying is we cannot rule it out, you cannot rule it out that he was responsible, but you cannot say with certainty that he is responsible. Only the inquiry will determine who was or was not responsible,” Mr Qureshi said.

The membership, funding and powers of the UN commission to investigate Benazir’s assassination are still to be worked out between the United Nations and Pakistan’ UN ambassador.

“What we want is credible people, people of eminence, people who have stature and respectability,” Mr Qureshi said.

“The initial inquiry was full of contradictions, and people had no faith in it. You have to put people’s minds at rest, and they were not satisfied.”

He said the Scotland Yard inquiry called by the previous government had a mandate “just to inquire about the cause of death, not who was responsible for the assassination.”

A.Q. Khan is history

Referring to a recent statement by nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan, the minister ruled out any future investigation into whether the military had helped Dr A.Q. Khan spread nuclear weapons to other countries.

Dr Khan alleged in an interview last week that the army had supervised a 2000 shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea and that it must have been sent with the approval of President Musharraf, who then headed the chief.

He said the case was closed and there would be no further comment or future investigations.

“What had to be found out, was found out. The steps that were required, were taken,” Qureshi said.

“The idea was to keep the world secure, and to keep the assets secure, and to make sure that an incident of this nature does not happen in the future. And all those objectives have been met,” he said.

“A.Q. Khan, as far as we are considered, is history. A.Q. Khan no longer has any official status. The network that he put together has been effectively broken.”

“He has no access to any vital information, or to our vital assets any more, so he is neutralised vis-a-vis any proliferation activity,” Qureshi said.

Hunt for Osama

In reply to a question about war on terror, Qureshi said there were no US or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and none would be allowed in to search for the Al Qaeda leader.

He said the Pakistani government had ruled out such military operations – covert or otherwise – to capture militants.

“Our government’s policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counter-productive,” he said. “People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in.”Qureshi said he had tried to reassure US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in their meeting on Friday that the Pakistani government was doing everything it could to combat militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

He acknowledged “there are some infiltrations” still occurring, but there are no covert US military operations trying to catch Al Qaeda figures and its chief, Taliban members or any other suspected militants.

“There are none,” he said. “It will create such an anti-US feeling in Pakistan that I would say would mar the atmosphere of cooperation that exists between us.”

Does he believe Osama is in Pakistan? “I don’t think so. I’m not sure,” he said. “Nobody’s aware of that. Nobody can speak with certainty. But our policy’s very clear. We are allies in this war. And if Pakistan has actionable information vis-a-vis Osama bin Laden or any other high-value target, Pakistan will immediately take action.”—AP