Zardari defiant as Pakistan mourns Bhutto

2011-12-28 342

Security is tight as hundreds of Pakistani come to pay their respects at the grave of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The charismatic opposition leader was assassinated on December 27, 2008, in a gun and suicide bomb attack after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi.
Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani paid his respects at her grave site.
He was later pressed on the investigation into her death
10. (SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER YUSAF RAZA GILANI SAYING:
"Benazir Bhutto's martyrdom was not a national tragedy, it was an international tragedy. The investigation into the case is almost complete.
No one has been charged with her assassination.
(SOUNDBITE) (Urdu) SAMREEN SHAHZADI, SUPPORTER OF BHUTTO'S RULING PAKISTAN PEOPLE'S PARTY (PPP) SAYING:
"My appeal to Mr. Zardari is that the person responsible for her (Bhutto's) murder, should be brought to justice, no matter who he is. Madam's blood should not go waste
Later in the day Bhutto's husband Pakistan President Asif Aali Zardari addressed a commemorative service in her honor.
With his Administration under fire he stood his ground, and denied rumors that a recent illness made him unfit for office.
(SOUNDBITE) (Urdu)PAKISTAN PRESIDENT ASIF ALI ZARDARI, SAYING:
"Somebody has said that I was 'medically unfit.' I ask you, 'Am I working alone and thus can be ruled medically unfit?' I have a huge team of hundreds of thousands, of milllions of people. Who told you I was alone and medically unfit?"
Bhutto became the first female prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988 at the age of 35.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters