The Scotland Yard team is expected to offer technical assistance to the Pakistani probe, rather than conduct a full investigation. Security officials say the team is due to meet Pakistani investigators, examine evidence and visit the crime scene. President Musharraf said he had invited Scotland Yard to dispel conspiracy theories about Benazir Butto’s death.

Many Pakistani’s have been sceptical about the government explanations of how Bhutto died. There are also suspicions that state agencies had been involved. Musharraf has dismissed such allegations although he has admitted mistakes in police procedure after the assassination and thus felt the need to ask for foreign help:

“Here is a situation where maybe, we need to go beyond ourselves to prove to the world, and prove to the people here, who are extremely, emotionally charged, that we might need to go to any extent because nobody is involved from the Government or the agency’s side. So, therefore, we went for Scotland Yard.”

Death cause unclear?

The Government has blamed Taliban militants for being behind the attacks. An initial government report said she Bhutto been killed when a bomb blast caused her head to hit the bullet-proof vehicle she was travelling in at the time. But Bhutto's Party -- the Pakistans People’s Party or PPP -- has rejected the Government’s version. The PPP in turn blames the lack of security measures for her assassination and is even scornful of the fact that Scotland Yard has been invited to investigate.

Almost everyday, new videos of the attack on Bhutto can be seen on TV. Benazir Bhutto’s widower and co-chairman of the PPP, Asif Ali Zardari, says:

“Today they are talking about Scotland Yard. With the help of modern Technology, we could see how the attack actually took place. What do theey want to inquire now? My wife had already named the people behind such attacks”.

Demands for UN investigation

Asif Zardari and the PPP have demanded a UN investigation on the lines of Lebanon’s Ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri murder case, but Musharraf has rejected any such intervention. Pakistan’s media is also looking at the arrival of the Yard team with scepticism. Political experts, too, have voiced their suspicions about the credibility of the government and its investigation. Political analyst Tallat Massoud believes: “The Government has lost all credibility. No one trusts the Government anymore”.

The Scotland Yard detectives in Pakistan do not face the easiest of tasks. The detectives are unlikely to make much progress from the scene of the crime -- it was cleaned soon after the killing.

At the moment, the major question which needs to be answered is how much co-operation the British detectives are going to get from various police and intelligence organisations in Pakistan.