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KARACHI : Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday she asked the government for permission to travel in a convoy of cars with tinted windows in the wake of last week's devastating suicide blasts.
Bhutto has been surrounded by heavily-armed guards since the attacks tore through her homecoming parade in Karachi city, killing 139 people and ruining her triumphant return after eight years in self-imposed exile.
She has vowed to stay in Pakistan to campaign for upcoming general polls, which are seen as a key step in the country's return to democracy after eight years of military rule by President Pervez Musharraf.
Amid ongoing fears for her safety, Bhutto told CNN that she wanted the government to provide some "basic security" in the run-up to the January polls.
"For example, I would like to travel in a convoy of cars with tinted windows so the assassins can't identify where I'm sitting.
"The government still hasn't given me permission to do that," Bhutto, the first female leader of an Islamic nation, told the network.
"I am not satisfied with the security provided to me. I should be made to feel secure, I should not be made to feel insecure," she later told reporters at a press conference.
The two-time premier has claimed in the wake of the carnage that the security forces and government have been infiltrated by Islamic militants.
She repeated her calls on Thursday for an independent investigation into the blasts and for overseas expertise to track down those responsible.
"We take financial help and political help from abroad, why can't we take help from technical experts for this investigation?" she told reporters.
The government has rejected the request, saying local investigators are capable of arresting those behind the nation's worst attacks.
Bhutto's comments come as she recovers from the flu in Karachi and prepares to visit her ancestral home of Larkana in a remote corner of southern Pakistan to pay her respects to the family mausoleum.
"She will visit Larkana on October 27th," her Pakistan People's Party central information secretary Sherry Rehman said.
Massive security preparations have been underway for her visit to the mausoleum where the tomb of her father, the late prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, is located.
Meanwhile, a new top police officer took over the probe Thursday into the blasts after Bhutto accused the former chief of bias, leading him to step down.
Bhutto claimed the former head was involved in the torture of her husband while he was in police custody in 1999.
"Senior police officer Saud Mirza is the new head of the investigation team probing the twin attacks," Sindh home secretary Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarram told AFP, adding that he was the head of criminal investigations in Karachi.
Sixteen people were also being interviewed over the blasts although they are not considered suspects, an officer said.
The October 18 blasts occurred in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of Bhutto supporters just hours after she returned to Pakistan for the first time since 1999.
She was cleared of graft charges by Musharraf earlier this month, paving the way for her return and a possible power-sharing pact with the general.
But the future of the pact is uncertain after the blasts and amid tensions between their parties over who should be held responsible for the carnage.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, is under pressure from the US, a key ally, to reach the deal, which could shore up the popularity of his government after months of political turmoil. - AFP/de
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