Bhutto Will Return Next Month

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The New York Sun

ISLAMABAD – Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, will return from an eight-year exile on October 18 to campaign for office, her party said today. The government said she was free to come back but would have to face corruption cases against her.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice president of Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, said she would land in Karachi and would bring democracy to Pakistan. Supporters, throwing flower petals and lighting firecrackers, chanted: “Long Live Benazir! Prime Minister Benazir!”

Ms. Bhutto would return regardless of outcome of talks with President General Musharraf that could see them share power after elections, another party official said. General Musharraf, the American-backed leader who is also head of Pakistan’s military, has seen his popularity decline in recent months with a surge in attacks by Islamic militants and his failed attempt to fire the country’s popular Supreme Court justice.

General Musharraf is expected to seek re-election as president by October 15, and Ms. Bhutto’s return would fall after that date. Parliamentary elections are expected to follow by January 2008, and Ms. Bhutto hopes to become Pakistan’s prime minister for a third time.

“The people of Pakistan will get real democracy” after Ms. Bhutto’s return, Mr. Fahim said, speaking in front of a huge portrait of the party leader.

He urged supporters and voters to receive Bhutto when she lands at the airport in Karachi, the capital of her home province of Sindh, before she tours Pakistan on her election campaign.

Earlier, a government spokesman said that Ms. Bhutto will not be deported in the manner of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, a government spokesman said. Sharif was expelled hours after he flew in on Monday.

That action sidelined General Musharraf’s chief political rival while indicating the general’s willingness to take authoritarian steps to extend his eight-year rule.

“We have decided that she (Bhutto) is coming back, talks or no talks,” Senator Babar Awan, another party leader. “This is the moment when the Pakistani nation has to redefine itself … Now is the time for struggle.”

However, Mr. Fahim said the door for negotiations would remain open until October 18. “In politics, you never close the door for negotiations,” he said.

In an interview today, Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim drew a clear distinction between the rights of Mr. Sharif and Ms. Bhutto to return to Pakistan.

“Nawaz Sharif’s case was different. He went back to Saudi Arabia because of an undertaking he had with the Saudi government,” Mr. Azim told The Associated Press. “She (Bhutto) was always allowed to come back.”

Asked about pending corruption cases against Ms. Bhutto, he added: “It’s for the law to take its own course. Everybody has to face cases against them and the same applies to her.”

Mr. Azim said the talks with Bhutto were snagged over her desire for the corruption cases to be closed, for a constitutional amendment to let her seek a third term as prime minister, and over the president’s re-election.

Ms. Bhutto, who served as prime minister twice between 1988 and 1996, has led her party from exile since leaving Pakistan in 1999 over the corruption allegations.

She risks a backlash among the public and her party if she strikes an agreement with the American-allied military leader, who ousted Mr. Sharif in a 1999 coup.

Today, Mr. Sharif’s party urged her not to reach terms with Musharraf.

“We welcome her coming back, but let me say that it will be an insult to democracy if she agrees to share power with a man who ousted the elected government of Nawaz Sharif and has caused irreparable damage to democratic institutions,” said Sadiq ul-Farooq, a senior figure in the party.

General Musharraf has been trying for months to reach an agreement with Bhutto that would overcome legal obstacles to him seeking a new five-year term.

With less than five weeks before the presidential election, Ms. Bhutto’s party says time is running out, though with Mr. Sharif out of the way, General Musharraf may be in a stronger position to dictate terms.

His government, however, has struggled to contain rising Islamic militancy, which has been blamed for near weekly suicide attacks against government targets — especially the military.

In the most recent attack — a suicide bomber who killed 16 soldiers in the dining hall of a commando base yesterday — investigators suspect the attacker had inside help, a military official said Friday. Evidence that Islamic militants can penetrate the high-security surrounding elite army units could shake faith in Pakistan’s ability to combat extremism.

A senior army officer told The Associated Press that survivors said they saw a man enter the busy dining room and blow himself up.

“Now we know for sure that the suicide attacker entered the dining hall,” said the official, who sought anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the record. “It was not possible without the support from some insider, or someone who had access.”

He said there were no firm leads on who could be responsible among a range of militant groups including the Taliban and Al Qaeda and homegrown Islamic extremist organizations.


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