Benazir not returning 'immediately'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, DEC. 12. The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, has no immediate plans to return home to lead the pro- democracy campaign and fill the Opposition ``space'' created by the exit of Mr. Nawaz Sharif from the political scene.

Sources in the Pakistan People's Party here denied that she was deterred by the prospects of being arrested on her return (there is an arrest warrant against her in a case of alleged financial irregularities), and pointed out that she was a waiting ``advice'' from the PPP's central executive in Islamabad. The executive was evaluating the situation and a decision on whether she should return and when would be taken ``shortly.''

The president of the U.K. unit of the PPP, Mr. Khawaja Shafique, said Ms. Bhutto, who is in Dubai, was ``greatly concerned'' that a person who was facing criminal charges had been let off without the country being taken into confidence. She was likely to start a campaign for the release of her husband, Mr. Asaf Zardari, now in a prison in Pakistan on corruption charges, he said accusing the Musharraf regime of following ``double standards.'' ``There can't be different laws for different people - one for Nawaz Sharif and one for Zardari'', he argued.

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Section  : International
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