The parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by terrorists in Karachi last year, have criticised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for saying that the case is 'history'.

In a letter to the Journal, captioned 'Musharraf ignores an open wound', Judea and Ruth Pearl said they were disappointed with the investigations into their son's killing.

"In his June 29 speech before the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles, President Musharraf reiterated his commitment to the fight against terrorism and to what he termed 'functional democracy' in Pakistan.

"We, the parents of Daniel Pearl, are deeply disappointed that, speaking in Daniel's hometown, President Musharraf did not find it appropriate to explain the current standstill in the investigation, prosecution and apprehension of those responsible for Daniel's murder," they said.

While on June 17, Musharraf said in Islamabad that he considers the case 'history', the Pearls said, for them and the international journalistic community, the case will remain an open wound until all those involved in the planning and execution of the murder are brought to justice.

They also demanded that a monument for Daniel Pearl be erected in Karachi, 'reaffirming the ideals for which he stood: truth, humanity and dialogue, and denouncing the ideologies that took his life'.

Pakistan's 'functional democracy' appears grossly dysfunctional if it can permit repeated and unending postponements of court meetings in the case of Omar Sayeed Sheikh, the man convicted July 25, 2002, of masterminding the reporter's murder, they said.