[NYTr] Bhutto to Return to Pakistabn Oct 18

Fri Sep 14 13:56:32 EDT 2007

[And will she, too, have the "charges" against her renewed?? -NYTr]

AP via Yahoo - Sep 14, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_politics

Bhutto to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Associated Press Writer

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan from an
eight-year exile on Oct. 18 to campaign for office, her party said
Friday. The government said she was free to come back but would have to
face corruption cases against her.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice president of 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!"

Bhutto would return regardless of outcome of talks with President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf that could see them share power after elections,
another party official said. Musharraf, the U.S.-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.

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

"The people of Pakistan will get real democracy" after Bhutto's return,
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 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 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,"
Sen. Babar Awan, another party leader. "This is the moment when the
Pakistani nation has to redefine itself ... Now is the time for
struggle."

However, Fahim said the door for negotiations would remain open until
Oct. 18. "In politics, you never close the door for negotiations," he
said.

In an interview Friday, Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim drew a
clear distinction between the rights of Sharif and 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," Azim told
The Associated Press. "She (Bhutto) was always allowed to come back."

Asked about pending corruption cases against 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."

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.

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 U.S.-allied military leader, who ousted Sharif in a
1999 coup.

On Friday, 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.

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, Bhutto's
party says time is running out, though with Sharif out of the way,
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 on Thursday — 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-Qaida and
homegrown Islamic extremist organizations.

[Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.]