Bhutto return vow deepens Pakistan crisis
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's political crisis deepened on Sunday after exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto vowed to return home having failed to reach a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf.
Key US ally Musharraf now faces the spectre of two ex-premiers flying home to challenge his shaky eight-year military regime, with Nawaz Sharif, the man he ousted in a 1999 coup, also pledging to come back.
The nuclear-armed Islamic republic has been wracked by instability ahead of an election due in September or October, in which Musharraf plans to make a hotly-opposed bid to win another five-year term as president-in-uniform.
Two-time premier Bhutto said on Saturday that she was determined to end her self-imposed exile over corruption charges and would announce the date of her return on September 14, four days after Sharif is set to fly home.
"No understanding has been arrived at and we are making our plans to return," Bhutto told a press conference in London when asked about the week-long backroom negotiations with Musharraf.
"I plan to return to Pakistan in the next few weeks to work for a moderate, a democratic Pakistan," said Bhutto, who has come under fire in her own Pakistan People's Party for dealing with a military ruler.
On Sunday, Bhutto told the BBC the talks had stalled over the issue of parliamentary powers. She had demanded that Musharraf relinquish his power to dissolve parliament.
"I'm trying to get a parliament that is sovereign, that can tackle the issues of militancy and poverty that are at the moment the main trouble spots for Pakistan," she said.
"I don't want to see chaos and anarchy and bloodshed," she added.
Musharraf has sent his aides back to London in a frantic bid to rescue the deal with Bhutto, who served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996, sources here said.
But the President faced new criticism Sunday, from Sharif, the man he deposed, who has announced he will return to Pakistan on September 10.
The ousted former premier belittled his successor's efforts to combat terrorism, pledging that the US-led "war on terror" would be safe if democracy returned to Pakistan.
"It's very simple: we're all against terror," Sharif told CNN, recapping his "excellent rapport" with then US president Bill Clinton before Musharraf ended his tenure as prime minister.
In Washington, criticism has been mounting that billions of dollars in US support for Pakistani anti-terror operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban diehards in Afghanistan have been wasted by the Musharraf regime.
"You can't fight terror as the way that Mr Musharraf is fighting. He needs the threat of terror for his own survival. We will fight terror out of conviction," Sharif said.
"You can't win the battle against terror when the nation is not behind you, when the people of the country are not supporting you, when the parliament is not behind you," he added, echoing comments Saturday when he urged the West not to give "blind support" to Musharraf.
The United States and Britain, however, have reportedly been pushing behind the scenes for a pact, seeing the Oxford-educated Bhutto as a natural ally for the relatively moderate Musharraf.
But the talks ran into trouble after the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Party opposed her demands that Musharraf shed his uniform before re-election, cede his powers to dissolve parliament and allow premiers to serve a third term.
A cabinet minister told AFP Saturday the Muslim League had told Musharraf he should not give in to the demands, which would pave the way for Bhutto or Sharif to return to office.
Analysts said the outlook remained uncertain.
"It is a very confusing situation. Bhutto is trying to gain time by saying that the date of her return will be announced on September 14, shortly before the schedule for the presidential election is out," political analyst Talat Masood told AFP.
"She wants some settlement and she will not give up her position on Musharraf's uniform especially when Nawaz Sharif has decided to return," he said.
