Supporters of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto attend a prayer service yesterday in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, at the site where the former prime minister was killed last week.

AP / Emilio Morenatti

WASHINGTON — A postponement of parliamentary elections is essential to Pakistan’s recovery from last week’s assassination of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy said yesterday. But he echoed the Bush administration’s warning that the time must be used to ensure fair elections and to repair some of the damage that President Pervez Musharraf has done to civil liberties.

The Rhode Island Democrat returned Wednesday from a tour of the Middle East and Southwest Asia and said it brought home the complexities of the situation in Pakistan and the delicacy of the U.S. relationship with that strategically vital nation.

Kennedy, still shocked by Bhutto’s killing shortly before he was to have met with her in Islamabad a week ago yesterday, reported that he left a Pakistan rife with rumors about the assassination and concerns about the conduct of the upcoming elections.

“It’s important to have an extra period of time to get monitors on the ground to clear up these questions about whether Musharraf’s secret police were tapped into the vote-counting operation,” Kennedy said.

That was a reference both to the widespread fears of Pakistani opposition groups and to a report that Bhutto had planned to deliver to Kennedy and his partner on the tour, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Kennedy said in a telephone interview yesterday that he had not known about the planned release of the Bhutto report until he learned of it from news stories this week. The stories said Bhutto’s report warned of an election-rigging scheme by Pakistan’s intelligence services — charges that the government denied.

The Melbourne, Australia, Herald-Sun said Wednesday that Bhutto’s party had intended to release the report to trusted U.S. politicians outside the Bush administration because of concerns that the White House backed Musharraf too strongly. Kennedy said he has yet to see the report but he added that opposition forces in Pakistan have warned of such election irregularities.

In Pakistan yesterday, Musharraf vehemently denied that he or his government played any role in the death of Bhutto, and instead blamed her for not heeding warnings to take extra precautions.

The elections originally set for Jan. 8 have been postponed until Feb. 18 because Bhutto’s death has given rise to popular unrest in Pakistan.

The Bush administration, which had feared an indefinite delay, has endorsed the move to fix a specific date for the rescheduled elections. Meanwhile, U.S. diplomats are pressing behind the scenes for Pakistan to allow international observers at polling stations and for the restoration of civil liberties suspended last fall. For example, the Bush administration seeks the release of jailed opposition activists and lawyers.

Kennedy applauded those actions by the Bush administration. “Our role is in bringing every monitoring body that we can bring to bear on this country” as the elections approach “and making sure that these questions about elections do not make a bad situation worse,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he was struck by the “delicate balance” that the United States must strike between prodding Musharraf’s administration toward sound election procedures and full restoration of civil rights on the one hand, and maintaining strong links to a vital, nuclear-armed ally in the struggle against terrorism.

“We need Pakistan in the war against terror desperately,” Kennedy said.

In a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Islamabad, Kennedy said he learned that Karzai and Musharraf had just concluded their most fruitful talks ever on their military and intelligence alliance in the struggle against Islamic extremists who hide in the vast Pakistani regions along Afghanistan’s border.

Kennedy said that during their meeting with Musharraf — hours before the scheduled dinner with Bhutto — he and Specter pressed the president on the release of opposition lawyers and the restoration of civil rights. Kennedy said Musharraf gave a detailed explanation of the political situation that had prompted the jailings but made no promises.

Material from the Los Angeles Times was included in this report.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com