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Bhutto to face trial if she returns home: Musharraf
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will have to face trial in connection with various cases of corruption pending against her if she opted to come back to the country.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will have to face trial in connection with various cases of corruption pending against her if she opted to come back to the country.
"Benazir will have to face trial on her return for the cases pending against her," Musharraf, who was on a country-wide campaign to win a five-year presidential term through the April 30 referendum, said while speaking to local body representatives in Faisalabad on Sunday.
Referring to Bhutto's recent comments she made in New York in an interview to a newspaper that she would return home to contest the October elections "even if she was sent to jail", Musahrraf said, his government never stopped her from coming back to Pakistan but she would have to face the trial.
Musharraf also said he would not permit both Bhutto and deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take part in the October polls.
"Pakistan faced serious setbacks in every sectors due to blunders made by previous leaders," the official APP newsagency quoted him as saying. Musharraf said his government would bring an end to dirty politics and promote politics of decency.
He said Bhutto and Sharif wanted to create political chaos suited to their own interests but people would foil their "nefarious" designs through the referendum.
Musharraf said Bhutto had herself been talking about a deal with the government but the latter neither offered any sort of deal to her nor believed in it.
He said both Bhutto and Sharif, "fanned the politics of hatred and indulged in political vendetta" while in power.
Meanwhile, Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML), has said the Pakistan government may not permit the plane carrying the exiled deposed prime minister to land at any airport in the country if he decided to return without any prior notice.
A PML (N) leader Siddiqul Farooq was quoted by the local daily Dawn as saying that Sharif had planned to return home without any notice in order to surprise the government.
Raja Zafarul Haq, who is leading the party in the absence of Sharif, recently went Jeddah to apprise him of on the latest political situation in Pakistan. Bureau Report
"Benazir will have to face trial on her return for the cases pending against her," Musharraf, who was on a country-wide campaign to win a five-year presidential term through the April 30 referendum, said while speaking to local body representatives in Faisalabad on Sunday.
Referring to Bhutto's recent comments she made in New York in an interview to a newspaper that she would return home to contest the October elections "even if she was sent to jail", Musahrraf said, his government never stopped her from coming back to Pakistan but she would have to face the trial.
Musharraf also said he would not permit both Bhutto and deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take part in the October polls.
"Pakistan faced serious setbacks in every sectors due to blunders made by previous leaders," the official APP newsagency quoted him as saying. Musharraf said his government would bring an end to dirty politics and promote politics of decency.
He said Bhutto and Sharif wanted to create political chaos suited to their own interests but people would foil their "nefarious" designs through the referendum.
Musharraf said Bhutto had herself been talking about a deal with the government but the latter neither offered any sort of deal to her nor believed in it.
He said both Bhutto and Sharif, "fanned the politics of hatred and indulged in political vendetta" while in power.
Meanwhile, Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML), has said the Pakistan government may not permit the plane carrying the exiled deposed prime minister to land at any airport in the country if he decided to return without any prior notice.
A PML (N) leader Siddiqul Farooq was quoted by the local daily Dawn as saying that Sharif had planned to return home without any notice in order to surprise the government.
Raja Zafarul Haq, who is leading the party in the absence of Sharif, recently went Jeddah to apprise him of on the latest political situation in Pakistan. Bureau Report