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Parliamentary elections in Pakistan put off until Feb.18

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Pakistan's Central Election Commission has postponed until February 18 parliamentary elections previously due on January 8 following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
ISLAMABAD, January 2 (RIA Novosti) - Pakistan's Central Election Commission has postponed until February 18 parliamentary elections previously due on January 8 following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"The elections have been postponed until February 18," a commission spokesman said on Wednesday.

Benazir Bhutto, 54, who had twice been the country's prime minister and was about to run in parliamentary elections as leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was killed in a suicide bomb attack on December 27. The assassination sparked violence around the country, which has already killed at least 58 people, according to official statistics.

Bhutto returned homeland from her exile on October 18, 2007. Two explosions went off on the day of her return, killing over 140 people. Bhutto herself was not injured.

Her party, PPP, expected to win the parliamentary election.

Meanwhile, France and the European Union have offered assistance to Pakistan in investigating the Bhutto case, Pakistan's television said referring to French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner currently on a visit to Islamabad.

"We have offered President [Pervez] Musharraf assistance of French and European experts," said Kouchner, the first high-ranking Western official to have visited Pakistan since Bhutto's death.

Bhutto's family earlier demanded that the authorities involve Western experts in the investigation, but the country's police said they would probe into the murder on their own.

Earlier in the day, Pakistani police spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema reported progress in the investigation of Bhutto's assassination with major evidence allegedly unearthed.

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