‘Benazir may face cases if court scraps ordinance’

WASHINGTON—Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto is free to return to Pakistan but could face corruption charges if courts overturn the National Reconciliation Ordinance, says Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

In an interview to CNN, the prime minister also insisted that Gen Pervez Musharraf would abide by a promise to quit the army. “She is free to come and, you know, the laws of the land will apply to her, like any other citizen of Pakistan,” said Mr Aziz when asked to comment on media reports that Ms Bhutto has rejected the government’s appeal to delay her planned return to Pakistan on Oct 18.

The prime minister noted that the Supreme Court said on Friday it would decide whether a government amnesty for Ms Bhutto was legal.

The ruling means that Ms Bhutto could still face corruption charges if the court overturns the ordinance that Gen Musharraf signed just over a week ago, he added.

“The people have had a strong reaction to removal of corruption cases against Miss Bhutto,” Mr Aziz said, while insisting that her case differed from that of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

The prime minister said Mr Sharif had broken a promise not to return to the country for 10 years after being convicted on criminal charges.

Mr Aziz told CNN that Gen Musharraf’s win had been “very legitimate” despite almost the entire opposition boycotting the presidential vote in parliament.

Asked whether Gen Musharraf still intended to renounce his post as army chief of staff, Mr Aziz said: “Absolutely. “He will have a single office which will be the civilian president of Pakistan.”

Asked about the whereabouts of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Mr Aziz said: “We have no clue where this gentleman is. I think if the world knew where he is, we would go after him.”

He dismissed claims that last week’s deadly clashes between Pakistani troops and pro-Taliban militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan showed the government was failing in its efforts.

“We have not taken our eye off the ball,” said the premier. “In fact, the intensity of engagement by the opposing parties has increased, because we are taking them on. We are not looking the other way. And why are we doing this? We are doing this because we think terrorism is no solution to any problem, and we believe that these elements have to be engaged and taken care of.”

A White House Homeland Security report released earlier this month said Al Qaeda had “regenerated a safe haven” in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which could help facilitate another attack on the United States.

But Mr Aziz said Pakistan had not weakened its stance.

“Pakistan will never allow any people from outside Pakistan to take safe haven here and then have our territory used to endanger the security of any other country,” he said. “And, we will not tolerate this and we will not allow anyone to do so. That is why we are engaging with elements that do cross over.”

But Mr Aziz said the fight cannot be won by Pakistan alone. He said the presence of coalition forces in Afghanistan drove terrorists into Pakistan’s tribal regions, and the faster Afghanistan could handle its own security, the safer those areas would be.

”We are also encouraging the other side, which means the Afghan side, to build more posts and have more troops on their side of the border, because what we see is a very heavy concentration of troops on our side, but then, once -- when they cross over, they are relatively less -- they are not intercepted as frequently as they should be,” said Mr Aziz.