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WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Bhutto to return to Pakistan on October 18
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-15 15:10
Islamabad?- The?former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto could
return to Pakistan from exile but she would have to face corruption
charges against her, a local newspaper Daily Times reported on Saturday.
Vice-Chairman of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim(C)
announces date of return to Pakistan of PPP chairperson and former
Pakistani?PM Benazir Bhutto during a press conference in
Islamabad.?[Agencies]?
Bhutto would not be deported in the manner of Nawaz Sharif who was
deported hours after landing at the Islamabad International Airport on
Monday, Daily Times quoted Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim as
saying.
Azim also said at a local TV program that Bhutto was not returning
because of any deal or understanding.
Benazir Bhutto,?chairperson of the main opposition Pakistan People's
Party(PPP), will return to Pakistan on October 18, her party announced on
Friday.
Bhutto will land in southern Pakistan's port city of Karachi, where she
will pay tribute to a mausoleum of the nation's founding father Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, the PPP said at a press conference telecast live by local TV
channels.
Bhutto, leader of PPP,?served twice as prime minister of Pakistan in the
late 1980s and mid-1990s, and went into a self-imposed exile in 1999 to
evade corruption charges against herself and her family.
General Pervez Musharraf's term as president will expire on November 15,
with government officials saying the presidential elections will be held
between September 15 and October 15.
According to Pakistan's constitution, the election to the office of
president shall be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30
days before the expiration of the term of the president in office.
Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq Tuesday said that
schedule for the presidential polls will be announced in a few days.
Seeking to renew his presidential term, President Musharraf, who gained
power in a 1999 military coup, has been holding talks with Benazir Bhutto
for a possible reported "power-sharing" formula.
But no deal has been finalized yet, according to public statements from
both sides.
Bhutto is reportedly asking Musharraf to cancel the accusations against
her, remove the legal bar for the former prime minister to go for a third
term, and shift power of dissolving assemblies from president to prime
minister. Bhutto also reportedly demanded Musharraf to quit post of army
chief, the country's top military leader.
In return, PPP, a national party with alleged high popularity in
Pakistan, will offer cooperation to Musharraf during his efforts to get
re-elected as president, earlier reports say.
Bhutto has been vowing to lead her party's campaign during the coming
parliamentary elections, which will be held by January 2008, within three
months following the expiry of current assemblies' term in mid-October
this year.
Musharraf is facing surging pressure from opposition groups while
contesting for another five-year term, especially since a March attempt
to fire the chief justice of the Supreme Court erupted into nationwide
street protests and ended with the judge's reinstatement in July.
Vowing to end the rule of General Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif, another exiled
former Pakistani leader, was deported to Saudi Arabia on September 10
after a less than five-hour stay in Islamabad's airport.
Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), another major
opposition party, went into a 10-year exile to evade life imprisonment
under an arrangement brokered through Saudi Arabia in 2000, one year
after General Pervez Musharraf dismissed his government.
Sharif and his PML-N party on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme
Court against the government for what they called defying an early order
of allowing Sharifs' return by the apex court and held Musharraf
responsible for "subverting" the law.
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