International   

Benazir vows to return home by year-end

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she would return home by the end of this year "whether Mr Musharraf would like it, or whether he would not like it''.

While Ms Bhutto held out the prospect of becoming Pakistan's Prime Minister a third time with Parvez Musharraf continuing as President, she accused his party of planning to "rig'' the National Assembly elections.

In an interview to The Times, Ms Bhutto said that though she looked forward to a "good working relationship'' with Gen. Musharraf, there were "important issues'' that still remained — and it would, therefore, be "premature'' to talk of a done deal between them at this stage. Speaking from her home in Dubai, Ms Bhutto confirmed what Pakistan-watchers here dubbed an "open secret'' — namely that her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) as well as Gen. Musharraf are keen to cut a mutually beneficial deal that would pave the way for her to return home to contest the elections while he would continue as President. But she demanded that all corruption charges against her must be dropped and democracy be fully restored. She also wanted the prospective "balance of power'' between the Prime Minister and the President to be clarified.

"Firstly, I plan to go back to Pakistan by the end of this year whether Mr Musharraf would like it or not like it. And I believe that the [corruption] cases must all be dropped... And what I feel and my party feels is that for more than a decade these charges have been used to hobble the opposition... ,'' she said.

Ms Bhutto said that if people voted to make her Prime Minister, it "would be an honour for me to take up that role and General Musharraf would be there as President.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Massive search operation in Colombo
Bomb attack near Karbala shrine
Non-Communist in China's Cabinet
Moscow threatens action after Estonia removes war memorial
NRI in race for top Commonwealth post
Benazir vows to return home by year-end
Singapore, Indonesia sign defence pact
Pakistan move to ban satirical play draws flak
Cheating in the time of the iPod
For new tools to nail liars
Gunmen attack mosque
King loyalist floats new party in Nepal

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu