Bhutto vows to stand for third term in Pakistan

Benazir Bhutto has said she is determined to return to Pakistan because her country, facing the worst turmoil since its military ruler General Pervez Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999, needs her.

Ms Bhutto, who was twiceprime minister and is now in exile in Dubai, said in an interview with The Independent that she was not deterred by the threat of corruption charges, nor by constitutional amendments that bar anyone from being elected for a third term.

"I intend to go back before the year's end and contest the elections. And if my people wish, they will lift that ban to enable me to then serve them as prime minister for a third time." Her remarks come as General Musharraf faces mounting opposition, triggered by his decision to suspend the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Since March, a movement of lawyers, journalists and opposition parties, including Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, have been mounting demonstrations to challenge General Musharraf's grip on power. The political stand-off has been compounded by a struggle between the government and Islamists, with security forces laying siege to a mosque in Islamabad where a radical cleric and hundreds of religious students demanding the imposition of sharia law were still holed up yesterday after days of clashes.

"Charges of corruption have been brought against me for more than a decade and nothing has come of them. I believe that these charges were politically motivated, just as they are in the case of the Chief Justice of Pakistan," Ms Bhutto said.

Pakistan's problems have been exacerbated by eight years of military rule, Ms Bhutto said. "We have seen in the past five years how there has been a creeping Talibanisation in the country, and how General Musharraf's regime has been unable to assert governmental authority. Musharraf does not seem to have much support left among the Pakistani people. He does have support from the international community for his role in the war on terror. It is possible that ... the army will give up on him."

But Ms Bhutto appeared to rule out the possibility of a power-sharing agreement between the Pakistan People's Party, the party she leads, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the ruling party loyal to President Musharraf. Such a deal has been talked about in Islamabad as a possible solution to the present crisis.

"The signal right now is that they want to keep the PML-Q in the driver's seat, and try to have the PPP or PML-N (the party led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif) as a gloss of legitimacy. Give us a few seats here and there, and say, 'be good boys or girls'. But that's not acceptable to the people of Pakistan, and certainly not acceptable to the leaders of the major political parties."

Pakistan's opposition parties, which meet in London today to prepare for elections and discuss ways to lever General Musharraf out of power, have warned that the polls will not be free and fair. Ms Bhutto alleges that 30 million voters have been "left off the electoral rolls" for the December general election.

"If the votes can't be cast, they won't be counted. And if the votes aren't counted, it means the ballot is rigged. If they go ahead with a rigged election, I envisage that the people of Pakistan all uniting together in a grand alliance to protest against the move, as happened in the orange revolution in Ukraine," she said.

Ms Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, served as Pakistan's former president and prime minister but was overthrown by the military and hanged in 1979. She also served as prime minister but fled in 1999 to avoid arrest after her government collapsed amid allegations of corruption and misrule.

Although President Musharraf, who is compelled by law to hold a presidential election in October, told a Pakistani news channel in May that neither Benazir Bhutto nor Nawaz Sharif would be returning before elections, the Minister for Information, Tariq Azim, said Ms Bhutto was free to return "at any time".

"Benazir Bhutto is in self-imposed exile," he said. "Yes, she will have to face the charges, but I am sure that her legal experts can work out a way for her. The ball is in her court. It is highly unlikely that she will be arrested on arrival."