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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
Elections in Pakistan have been postponed for six weeks. The country's election commission made that announcement today, saying the vote will now be on the 18th of February. President Pervez Musharraf defended that decision in a nationwide television address. He also announced that experts from Britain's Scotland Yard are coming to Pakistan to help investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
NPR's Philip Reeves reports.
PHILIP REEVES: Benazir Bhutto's supporters want an international inquiry into her assassination. Pakistan's government has so far resisted these demands. Now, it's given some ground.
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REEVES: President Pervez Musharraf today made a nationwide television address to calm the country still reeling in the aftermath of Bhutto's assassination. He said he'd ask Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown for help.
President PERVEZ MUSHARRAF (Pakistan): (Speaking in foreign language)
REEVES: He'd ask for a team of experts from Scotland Yard to come to Pakistan to support the investigation into the killing of Bhutto. Scotland Yard later confirmed it was sending a small team of officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command. That task won't be easy.
Political analyst Nasim Zehra says the behavior of the Pakistani authorities immediately after Bhutto's assassination has complicated matters.
Ms. NASIM ZEHRA (Political Analyst; Fellow, Harvard University): They've removed all the evidence and nothing was picked up from the scene of the assassination. So it makes the situation a little complex. But nevertheless, I think the government realizes what a big crisis it is.
REEVES: Musharraf said he hoped, by seeking assistance from the British, to remove suspicion surrounding the circumstances of Bhutto's death. These run very deep. Many Pakistanis don't believe Musharraf when he said the assassination was the work of a tribal militant leader called Bastille Mahsud, who's allegedly linked to al Qaeda. Bhutto's supporters suspect she was killed by elements within Pakistan's government and/or the intelligence agencies and believe the authorities are attempting a cover-up.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, was unimpressed by Musharraf's announcement.
Mr. ASIF ALI ZADARI (Benazir Bhutto's Husband): (Speaking in foreign language)
REEVES: Why haven't the British been called in earlier, he asked. Why wasn't Scotland Yard called in after Bhutto's convoy was attacked in October on the day of her return to Pakistan?
It seems the British are coming to help out the Pakistani authorities. Musharraf made no mention of them conducting an investigation of their own. But Zardari wants an independent inquiry along the lines of the U.N. investigation into the assassination of the Lebanese leader, Rafik Hariri. There was another purpose behind Musharraf's speech today, and that was to explain why the elections are being delayed.
Unidentified Man: No, election will depend on the (unintelligible). This is our (unintelligible).
REEVES: A few hours earlier, at a chaotic and bad-tempered news conference, Pakistan's election commission announced the new date. The commission said it was impossible to stick to the original date of the 8th of January. It said about a dozen election offices, including vital equipment, have been torched in the province of Sindh during riot in the first few days after Bhutto's death. It also said there were problems printing enough ballot papers in time; several presses closed during the violence. And it wanted to wait until after the Islamic holy month of Muharram, which begins in a few days and is often a tense period in Pakistan.
These arguments failed to convince Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party. It wants the elections to be held on time, knowing it stands to do particularly well because of the likely sympathy vote. The other big opposition party, a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was also publicly critical of the postponement. Syed Zafar Ali Shah is one of its senior members.
Mr. SYED ZAFAR ALI SHAH (Senior Member, Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz): We have condemned this announcement by the election commission. This is just a favor to the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which is the so-called the King's Party.
REEVES: The King's Party is the ruling party behind Musharraf. Musharraf's critics said the elections are being put back because the party is facing the prospect of a heavy defeat at the hands of Bhutto's party. The government wants to buy some time, they say, to allow the wave of sympathy for Bhutto to wear off. The opposition parties are planning to participate in the elections, but they say the longer the wait, the greater the chance of further crises and further postponements. Shah says the delay is also deepening suspicions that the elections won't be free and fair.
Mr. SHAH: The apprehension regarding the rigging of the election has increased.
REEVES: Philip Reeves, NPR News, Islamabad.