Benazir hints at ruling coalition
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said her Pakistani Peoples’ Party will pick up additional seats in parliament in the January election, but likely will have to enter into a coalition to create a ruling majority. In her first interview since the Election Commission struck down challenges to her candidacy on Monday, Mrs. Bhutto told The Washington Times that an alliance with the party of Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, would be possible, but ruled out joining with those controlled by President Pervez Musharraf or Muslim clerics.
“No one will accept a Q victory,” she said of Mr. Musharraf’s wing of the Pakistan Muslim League. “He has no support in the country. They must ask the police, utilities, hospital staff to come to rallies.” She said the only way the president’s party will pick up votes is with illegal support from government officials. Although ineligible himself, Mr. Sharif began his party’s campaign over the weekend, after Mrs. Bhutto refused to join a boycott, by demanding the restoration of an independent judiciary and a stronger democracy.
Mrs. Bhutto, who yesterday made her first public campaign appearance in the yard of the PPP regional headquarters in the North West Frontier Province town of Mardan, expressed satisfaction - but not surprise - that the commission cleared away the last obstacle to her returning for office. “I have not been convicted of any crime,” said Mrs. Bhutto, whose governments were twice dissolved with charges of corruption. She has rejected all accusations against her and her family as being “politically motivated.” The Spanish government dismissed money laundering charges against her last week for lack of evidence.
Her return to Pakistan after a decade in self-imposed exile was only possible after the Musharraf government passed a “national reconciliation” rule that effectively pardons Mrs. Bhutto and her associates. Her political nemesis, Mr. Sharif, who returned to Pakistan last month but without such a pardon, was rejected for office by the Election Commission.
His party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, tried for weeks to convince Mrs. Bhutto’s party to boycott the elections, but the two announced over the weekend that they and their affiliated parties will warily participate.