The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Islamabad

President Pervez Musharraf will announce he is seeking international help in an investigation into the assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a close aide said on Wednesday. Musharraf, in a televised address to the nation due at 8 p.m. (1500 GMT), would also appeal for calm ahead of an election that was due on Jan. 8 but will be delayed for several weeks. The Election Commission will announce a new date for the poll before Musharraf's address. Pakistan has been under pressure from the United States and elsewhere, as well as Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), to accept an outside investigation. Forensic experts believe that much of the evidence has been lost in the clean-up operation after the gun-and-bomb attack that killed Bhutto in the garrison town of Rawalpindi last Thursday.