Benazir faces fresh corruption charges

LONDON, FEB. 18. In an attempt to thwart Ms. Benazir Bhutto making a comeback, Pakistan's military regime is planning to frame fresh corruption charges against the former Prime Minister who is now living in Dubai on a self-imposed exile, media reports said today.

Ms. Benazir Bhutto would face four new charges, including one that she and her jailed husband, Mr. Asif Zardari, illegally owned a 340-acre estate in Surrey in the U.K., The Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper quoted Lieutenant-General Khalid Maqbool, head of the National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's main anti- corruption body, saying that Ms. Benazir Bhutto would face four new charges and none of the charges allowed bail so if she went back she would be placed in custody on arrival.

Lt. Gen. Maqbool said the government was awaiting 20,000-page documents from the U.K. about the purchase of the estate, including Rockwood House before detailing the charges.

The latest threat of slapping fresh corruption charges against her comes at a time the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief was contemplating to return to Islamabad in the wake of disclosure of taped telephone conversations allegedly showing that Mr. Malik Abdul Qayyum, judge who presided over her corruption trial in 1999, had been in regular contact with her political adversaries and settled on his guilty verdict before the defence case began.

- PTI

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