The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

A Scotland Yard team that arrived in Pakistan on Friday to help investigate the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will fail to shed any light on the murder, her party said.

"This Scotland Yard teamt what will it do here? It will work under the patronage of the government. It is going to be a meaningless exercise," said Farooq Naik, a lawyer and Bhutto's top aide.

He said the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) would not cooperate with any investigation other than one held under the auspices of the United Nations, such as the UN-led probe into the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.

"We reject it, we will not join it," Naik said.

"An international investigation commission should be set up, appointed by the UN and answerable to the UN and nobody else."

The government has already ruled out any UN-led inquiry into the assassination of Bhutto at an election campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27.

Bhutto supporters have blamed President Pervez Musharraf for failing to provide adequate security for the two-time former prime minister, who had survived an earlier suicide bombing in October which left scores dead.