Scotland Yard's investigators may not have much to work with in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in country, leading to an inquiry that raises more questions than answers, analysts say.
They say the arrival from London of one of the world's most famous police squads is likely to make little difference in a country with a long tradition of political murders and an equally long tradition of failing to solve them.
President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday the Yard would help get to the bottom of the opposition leader's assassination, which happened under the noses of reputedly one of the most formidable intelligence and security services in the world.
But in country, whose agencies exercise a hold on every corner of daily life, the announcement could be little more than a belated effort at damage control, analysts say. "This was basically an attempt to build bridges and calm the situation," said Nasim Zehra, an author and visiting fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center.
"(Musharraf) knows what a major catastrophe has hit the nation and how horribly and how clumsily the government has handled it," Zehra told AFP. "It has ended up completely showing the government's incompetence." A senior government official, who could not be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said there might not be much the Scotland Yard team can do.
"They will come here and ask for two things. Do you have a post-mortem report? Do you know the cause of death? They will ask for a detailed post-mortem report - and we don't have any," the official said. "I seriously do not think there is anything for them to investigate."
The official account of Benazir Bhutto's death appeared to unravel almost as soon as it was presented, fuelling conspiracy theories in a nation already awash in them - and magnifying a feeling of outrage.
The government said the gunman shot and missed, but Bhutto aides swore they saw bullet wounds on her body. It said she died banging her head on her car sunroof, but videos and pictures called that explanation into question. The government summoned local papers to clarify its stance. But when they reported officials had apologised for the sunroof explanation, the government clarified its clarification. There had been no apology, it said.
After news reports said the crime scene was washed clean within hours of Bhutto's killing, many here saw sinister intent and not bureaucratic bumbling, and looked anew at government forces blamed for bloodshed in the past. "People saw (Musharraf) as somebody who failed to protect her, someone who failed to investigate the murder properly and then jumped to conclusions," said Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst and newspaper columnist.
The army has been at odds with the Bhutto family since her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then prime minister, sacked a clutch of top generals after country lost Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, in a 1971 war with India. He was toppled in 1977 and hanged by a military regime two years later.
Opponents of Musharraf, including Bhutto, accused him of being a military dictator before the general-president retired from the army just weeks ago. Bhutto reportedly left behind a letter, to be released if she came to an untimely end, blaming Musharraf for failing to provide for her safety. She had survived a twin suicide attack in October that left 139 people dead.
The government has rubbish any suggestion of blame. When a US newspaper cited Hillary Clinton noting how Bhutto had been killed in Rawalpindi, home to army headquarters, the foreign ministry said the paper "twisted" her remarks.
The country's alphabet soup of Islamic militant groups meanwhile opposed a pro-Western Muslim woman who spoke out against extremists and vowed to crush them if she ever came to power again.
Analysts say the United States, which has relied on Musharraf as a pivotal ally ever since the September 11, 2001 attacks, would be unwilling to allow a UN probe that could embarrass a close partner in the "war on terror".
Reacting after Musharraf's speech, the White House said Scotland Yard would "lead" the inquiry, although the Pakistani leader had never said that. At the same time, it ruled out a UN inquiry - "we don't see a need for an investigation beyond that at this time," a spokeswoman said.
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