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Benazir, PML in war of words

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto and the ruling faction of the Pakistan Muslim League have declared open war on each other over the attack on her, testing President Pervez Musharraf’s recently reached fragile understanding with the former Prime Minister against an older band of his political allies.

Ruling party chief Chaudhary Shujat Hussain, who was among those opposed to Gen. Musharraf’s deal with Ms. Bhutto, on Monday accused her husband Asif Zardari of stage-managing the attacks on her October 18 welcome convoy that killed 139 persons and wounded and maimed over 500.

Speaking on Geo television, he said Mr. Zardari orchestrated the entire attack from Dubai, while the PPP leader had disappeared into the armoured container at the time of the blast, leaving the party leadership exposed to the blasts.

An application from the PPP to the police on Sunday for a fresh FIR is reported to have made reference to three unnamed individuals that Ms. Bhutto said earlier she had named in a letter to Gen. Musharraf before her arrival in Pakistan, as those plotting to assassinate her.

Quoting sources, a newspaper said the three were Intelligence Bureau boss Brigadier (retd.) Ejaz Shah, Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and the Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi are among the three.

While the presidential spokesman has rejected the allegation against the IB chief and said there were no plans to remove him, Mr. Hussain expressed astonishment on the television programme that the PPP leader could name Mr. Elahi – they are cousins.

The PPP hit back at Mr. Hussain for his accusation. Party secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraff said on the programme that the ruling party leader had “lost his senses.”

Separately, the party slammed Mr. Hussain’s “manic” remarks. In a statement, Sherry Rehman, a PPP spokesperson, described it as an attempt to derail the investigations into the attack, and said it was this concern that had prompted the PPP to demand international help for the investigation.

The two parties will soon face each other in general elections that will decide which of them will get to share power with Gen. Musharraf, who is himself awaiting a Supreme Court verdict on his election.

If reports in the press suggesting that Gen. Musharraf may also permit Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif to return once the court secures him in his second term, the electoral contest will be a tightly fought race for all parties.

At an evening press conference that has become part of Ms. Bhutto’s daily routine in Karachi, the PPP leader reiterated her demand for international expertise to hunt down the perpetrators of the attack on her convoy. The demand, which she initially made on Sunday, was shot down by the government earlier in the day.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters that Pakistani investigators, who handled investigations into the assassination attempts on President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, were quite capable of doing their job.

But he was mum on Ms. Bhutto’s other demand that the police official in charge of the investigations be replaced, alleging that he had tortured her husband in custody.

The PPP leader said that while Gen. Musharraf and the National Security Adviser Tariq Azeem were constantly reassuring her of all co-operation, certain others in the government were working against this.

“It’s a bit like the situation in the frontier areas, where everybody is co-operating but the ground reality is very different,” she said, adding that she had not got everything that she needed for her security.

During the day, Ms. Bhutto paid a visit to the mausoleum of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, where her plan to address a public meeting on her arrival had to be abruptly cancelled following the blasts on her welcome parade.

Responding to criticism that Ms. Bhutto had not informed the government in advance of her outing on Sunday to a hospital and to Lyari, an area that is her party’s stronghold, the former Prime Minister said the government could not expect her to share all information about her movements as she feared it would leak out to “would-be assassins.”

The PPP has also said it would defy a ban on public processions announced by the Interior Ministry.

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