Grappling with the fallout of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf walked the tightrope today in a desperate bid to gain credibility. The January 8 elections were delayed despite protests from the opposition but February 18 was announced as the new date. And he partly gave in to opposition demands by announcing that he had asked a team of investigators from Britain’s Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation into Bhutto’s killing.

“We decided to request a team from Scotland Yard to come. I sent the request to (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown, and he accepted the request,” Musharraf said, adding that the British team would “assist our investigators on our weaknesses,” so that “doubts will be removed.”

“We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,” Musharraf said in a nationally televised address.

Musharraf’s nearly 30-minute speech was his first major address since Bhutto’s death. “This is a time for reconciliation and not for confrontation,” he said. “The nation has experienced a great tragedy. Benazir Bhutto has died in the hands of terrorists. I pray to God almighty to put the eternal soul of Benazir at peace,” he said.

Hours earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan deferred the polls by six weeks claiming that the violence after Bhutto’s assassination had damaged the poll machinery in several areas in Sindh — offices were set ablaze and poll records and material had been damaged.

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