Islamabad, July 03: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's 10-year-old daughter returned to Pakistan to visit her jailed father, Bhutto's spokesman said today. The youngest of Bhutto's three children, Asifa Zardari, returned to Pakistan this week from the United Arab Emirates where she lives with her mother, spokesman Farhatullah Babar said. Bhutto has refused to return because of outstanding corruption charges and warnings from the authorities that she would be arrested upon her arrival. Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has been in prison in Pakistan since 1996, when his wife's government was dismissed on charges of widespread corruption and economic mismanagement.


The girl visited her father in a state-run hospital in the capital of Islamabad, where he is receiving treatment for a chronic back problem.


She will be allowed to stay in the hospital with her father. In Pakistani hospitals, rooms of the wealthy often include an adjoining room for family members. Police surround Zardari's hospital room, which has been designated a jail cell while he is there.
Bhutto has two other children - a son, Bilawal, 15, and a daughter, Bakhtawar, 13.

Bureau Report