| 2007
Pakistan Election: Bhutto refuses to delay return:
October
11, 2007: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The party
of former premier Benazir Bhutto rejected
a call Thursday from the president to delay her return
from exile, insisting she would land in Pakistan as planned
next week to campaign for January elections.
Bhutto,
who went into self-imposed exile in 1999 to escape corruption
charges, plans a grand homecoming Oct. 18. After months
of power-sharing talks, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf last week enacted an amnesty quashing
cases against her and other politicians.
But
Wednesday, Musharraf urged Bhutto
to postpone her return to Pakistan until after the Supreme
Court rules on his own eligibility for a new five-year
presidential term. The court is due to resume hearings
on Oct. 17, a day before Bhutto is scheduled to land in
Karachi.
Farhatullah
Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan
People's Party, said the two-time prime minister was sticking
to her plans.
She
"will come on Oct. 18 as scheduled," Babar
told The Associated Press.
He
denied a report in the respected Dawn daily that Bhutto
would discuss a possible delay with senior aides on Thursday.
He confirmed the meeting was taking place in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, but said a postponement was not on the
agenda.
Musharraf,
who seized power in a 1999 coup, swept a presidential
election by lawmakers last weekend, but faces at least
a week of political limbo until the court decides whether
he can take up office. If the court rules in his favor,
he has promised to relinquish his command of the army.
Opponents
argue that Musharraf should have been
disqualified from running under a constitutional bar on
public servants -- including army officers -- seeking
elected office.
Bhutto
and Musharraf are eyeing a possible alliance
if her party fares well in the parliamentary election,
which will be held in January.
Although
longtime rivals, Bhutto and Musharraf
both are pro-American and have called for moderate forces
to reverse a resurgence of Taliban and al-Qaida militants
along the Afghan border.
Violence
linked to growing Islamic militancy in Pakistan has killed
more than 1,000 people in a little over three months,
fanning opposition to the country's close alliance with
the United States.
On
Thursday, a prominent tribal elder accused Pakistan's
army of killing dozens of civilians this week in fierce
fighting near the Afghan border.
At
least 50 people were killed Tuesday when jets and helicopter
gunships targeted suspected militant positions in Epi
village in North Waziristan, pushing the death toll in
fighting since the weekend to 250. Witnesses said the
village bazaar was bombed.
''We
know that the army killed 55 innocent people, and they
included women and children,'' Maulana Nek Zaman, a local
lawmaker for the hardline party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam,
told the AP. ''We know it because we buried them.''
Maj.
Gen. Waheed Arshad, an army spokesman, said there
were reports of civilian casualties, but did not say how
many. He blamed militants for opening fire on security
forces from villagers' dwellings. He said the estimated
200 dead militants included about 50 foreigners, including
25 Uzbeks, some Arabs, Afghans and Tajik fighters.
Adding
to the current political uncertainty, the party of another
exiled former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, threatened
Thursday to boycott the parliamentary vote, claiming the
current election commissioner was biased toward the government.
'
'These
elections under Gen. Pervez Musharraf
cannot be free and fair,'' Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman
of Sharif's Pakistan's Muslim League-N party, said.
Opposition
parties largely boycotted Saturday's presidential vote.
They claimed that the election commission had altered
election rules in favor of Musharraf.
They also protested him seeking a new term from outgoing
assemblies rather than a new parliament.
For
more breaking news on the upcoming 2007 Pakistan
Elections,
click HERE .
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