The three-member U.N. panel said her death could have been avoided if Musharraf’s government and various security agencies had taken adequate measures. It also found that the probe into her death was deliberately hampered by intelligence agencies. The U.N. secretary-general agreed to appoint a commission to assist Pakistan by determining the facts and circumstances of Bhutto’s death and it began work on July 1, 2009, conducting more than 250 interviews and reviewing hundreds of documents, videos, photographs and documentary material.

The U.N. commission said Musharraf’s government, though tracking threats against Bhutto, did little more than pass them on to her and provincial authorities and did not act to neutralize them or ensure “that the security provided was commensurate with the threats.” Bhutto’s party provided extra security, but the arrangements “lacked leadership and were inadequate and poorly executed,” it said.

The Rawalpindi District Police’s actions and omissions in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, including the hosing down of the crime scene and failure to collect and preserve evidence, inflicted irreparable damage to the investigation. The decision to not conduct an autopsy made it impossible to determine a precise cause of death.

Ms. Bhutto faced threats from a number of sources. These included al-Qaida, the Taliban, local jihadi groups and potentially from elements in the Pakistani Establishment. The police probe lacked direction and commitment, and that it went after “lower level operatives,” not higher-ups.

The commission believes that the failure of the police to investigate effectively Ms. Bhutto’s assassination was deliberate. “These officials, in part fearing intelligence agencies’ involvement, were unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew, as professionals, they should have taken.

Five people have been accused by authorities involvement in the assassination, but officials have said a final charge-sheet against them would only be submitted in court after the U.N. report was examined. A hearing was scheduled for April 21 for the five, jail official Mohammed Zafar said.

The commission urged Pakistani authorities to carry out a “serious, credible” criminal investigation that “determines who conceived, ordered and executed this heinous crime of historic proportions, and brings those responsible to justice.”

Pakistan’s presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the report backed up the PPP’s belief that Musharraf or his allies were responsible for Bhutto’s death. But Musharraf aide Rashid Qureshi insisted the U.N. report was based on rumours and that Musharraf was not responsible. The U.N. report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is a “pack of lies” that wrongly implicates ex-President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan’s security forces for not preventing her killing, Rashid Qureshi further said.

Qureshi added:

This chief U.N. investigator was not the relative of Sherlock Homes. Bhutto exposed herself to the risk even after the head of the country’s most powerful spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, warned her not to attend the rally because of threats of an attack.

Musharraf’s government blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant commander with reported links to al-Qaida. Officials at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency also said Mehsud, who was killed in a missile strike last August, was the chief suspect.

The U.N. commission said Musharraf’s government, though tracking threats against Bhutto, did little more than pass them on to her and provincial authorities and did not act to neutralize them or ensure “that the security provided was commensurate with the threats.”

Bhutto’s party provided extra security, but the arrangements “lacked leadership and were inadequate and poorly executed,” it said.

“The Rawalpindi District Police’s actions and omissions in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, including the hosing down of the crime scene and failure to collect and preserve evidence, inflicted irreparable damage to the investigation,” the commission said. The decision to not conduct an autopsy made it impossible to determine a precise cause of death, it said.

While Bhutto was killed by a 15 1/2-year-old suicide bomber, “no one believes that this boy acted alone,” it said.

“Ms. Bhutto faced threats from a number of sources,” the commission said. “These included al-Qaida, the Taliban, local jihadi groups and potentially from elements in the Pakistani Establishment” – a reference to the country’s powerful military and intelligence apparatus.

The U.N. said the police probe lacked direction and commitment, and that it went after “lower level operatives,” not higher-ups.

The commission said Pakistan’s main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, conducted parallel investigations, gathering evidence which was only selectively shared with the police.

“The commission believes that the failure of the police to investigate effectively Ms. Bhutto’s assassination was deliberate,” the report said. “These officials, in part fearing intelligence agencies’ involvement, were unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew, as professionals, they should have taken.”

Five people have been accused by authorities involvement in the assassination, but officials have said a final charge-sheet against them would only be submitted in court after the U.N. report was examined. A hearing was scheduled for April 21 for the five, jail official Mohammed Zafar said.

The commission urged Pakistani authorities to carry out a “serious, credible” criminal investigation that “determines who conceived, ordered and executed this heinous crime of historic proportions, and brings those responsible to justice.”

Bhutto was killed in a December 27, 2007, gun and suicide-bomb attack as she was leaving a rally in Rawalpindi city, where she was campaigning to return her Pakistan People’s Party to power in elections after returning from nearly nine years in self-imposed exile.

As indicated in the report that Pakistan authorities should initiate serious criminal investigations to determine the culprits who are responsible for this heinous crime and bring them to justice. Benazir Butto’s party is in power in Pakistan and her husband Mr. Asif Ali Zardari is president of Pakistan, one should expect from the government that it does take some steps to resolve the mystery surrounding Benazir’s assassination.

Government of Pakistan paid 5Million dollars to UN for the investigation. However, there is nothing new in the report which has not been already known to Pakistanis. The report has only compiled the facts which were already gathered by other agencies in Pakistan and presented as a report. The question here is what has government achieved from this report by spending 5 Million Dollars? The report is not going to help at all to catch the culprits in any way.