Bhutto reluctant to "save" Pakistan's Musharraf

Islamabad, July 23: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto said she would risk reaching a deal to help President Pervez Musharraf get re-elected only if it ensured fair parliamentary elections were held on time, according to a British newspaper report.

Several Pakistani newspapers carried stories today about the Sunday Times interview with Bhutto, who has been in talks with Musharraf's emissaries for months about the possibility of arranging some kind of deal with elections due later this year.

She said Musharraf was weakened by the Supreme Court's decision last Friday to reinstate a chief justice the president had suspended four months earlier.

''He has lost his moral authority. His popularity rates are down and it would be very unpopular if we saved him. We would lose votes by being associated with him,'' Bhutto told the Sunday Times.

The newspaper said ''the only circumstances in which she might still consider an arrangement would be if she felt it was necessary to guarantee fair parliamentary elections on time''.

Musharraf hopes to be re-elected by the current assemblies in September or October, and is constitutionally obliged to give up his role as army chief by year-end, while parliamentary elections are expected by December of January.

Rivals are expected to mount constitutional challenges to Musharraf being elected by the same assembly twice, and to his being elected while still holding his army post.

Musharraf has repeatedly ruled out imposing a state of emergency, but rivals fear he might still resort to it to extend his rule in view of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

Pakistan has been gripped by terror this month following a spate of revenge attacks by Islamist militants after the army's assault on Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, to crush a Taliban-style movement.

While at least 102 people were killed in the siege and assault on Lal Masjid, Islamist militants have killed more than 180 people so for this month, mostly through suicide bomb attacks targetting police and soldiers.

The Pakistan army is also under pressure the from the United States to act against al Qaeda and Taliban militants in its North Waziristan tribal region, where a 10 month old peace deal has crumbled.

Bhutto has said she would not be prepared to work with Musharraf while he remained army chief, although she has also said the combination of herself and Musharraf could turn a rising Islamist tide in Pakistan.

In the interview the leader of the liberal-leaning Pakistan's Peoples Party reiterated her determination to return to Pakistan by December, ending almost a decade of self-exile.

''I feel safer about returning after the Supreme Court decision,'' Bhutto said, adding her party would meet next month do decide whether she should come back as early as September.

Bhutto and her husband face a string of graft charges in Pakistan, which she wants withdrawn.

Reuters>