Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday filed her nomination for the January 8 general elections while her arch rival and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif, who returned from seven years in exile, will file his papers on Monday.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Tuesday directed former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, a "proclaimed offender", to cooperate with investigators probing the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Addressing a press conference in Dubai, Bhutto said Pakistan's people are "extremely repressed" now and "no power on earth" would prevent her from going back to work for their empowerment.
Bhutto's return after the Presidential election, expected to take place before October 15, adds to the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf's close aide Rashid Qureshi has described the United Nations commission's enquiry report on former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination as a 'pack of lies'.Qureshi said the probe report, which blamed the then Musharraf government of 'deliberately' failing to probe the December 2007 gun and bomb attack on Bhutto, was based on rumours and that Musharraf cannot be blamed for the attack.
The former premier left for Dubai a day after telling reporters that she was postponing the visit as she feared that the Pakistan government would impose emergency during her absence.
The Scotland Yard team, probing the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is facing difficulties and demanded the slain leader's post-mortem.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has warned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that failure to reach an agreement with her could lead to a people's uprising in the country.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is determined to return to Pakistan from self-exile on October 18, the Pakistan People's Party said in Islamabad on Monday. The government had asked Bhutto to postpone her homecoming till the Supreme Court decides on petitions against President Pervez Musharraf's re-election and a law giving Bhutto amnesty in graft cases. PPP spokesperson Sherry Rehman there was no confusion about the two-time prime minister's return programme.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday granted bail to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, introduced the resolution, which was voted 413-0.
The investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto could cost Pakistan up to $100 million and take up to 14 months to complete, a media report said on Wednesday.Pakistan has assured the United Nations that it will provide all the money needed to investigate the assassination of Bhutto. The assurance was given by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi during a meeting with UN officials. Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack after an election rally.
Bhutto confirmed that her party and Musharraf were in negotiations but said no agreement has been reached so far.
"I think there is a hope for justice. Justice is not only carried out in courts. Young Pakistanis, who have seen the violence in Pakistan, will stand up to the justice one day," said Bhutto, who's father Murtaza was killed on September 20, 1996, when Fatima was 14, in a gunbattle with police near his Karachi residence. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was accused of plotting Murtaza's murder but had been acquitted of the charge.
Bhutto, who might face corruption charges on her return to Pakistan, said she felt confident that the people of Pakistan will rally around her because they wanted democracy restored.
She had raised the issue of her security throughout the day and even during the rally, she sent an aide notes, expressing her concern about the lack of security.
Bhutto had earlier said that her party would contest the polls 'under protest', while Sharif has backed the All Parties Democratic Movement's decision to boycott the polls.
Musharraf has said he will not allow Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif back in the country. Bhutto says she will return earlier than she had originally planned.
An independent United Nations-appointed panel probing the killing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will on Thursday release its sensitive report on her assassination in 2007
'The eight-mile drive from the airport to the Minar-i-Pakistan in Iqbal Park usually takes 15 minutes. On the unbelievable day of April 10, 1986, it took us ten hours,' Bhutto recalls in her 1988 memoir Daughter of the East.
Brig Ejaz Shah has been strongly criticised by Benazir and her supporters for the security failure and they have demanded his removal and arrest. When he was in the ISI, he used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar
The former prime minister also expressed apprehension of President Musharraf continuing in office and still wearing his uniform as Chief of the Armed Forces.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Friday remanded Pervez Musharraf to the physical custody of the Federal Investigation Agency till April 30 in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf asserted May 11 that former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif would not be allowed to return from exile.
Benazir, who pledged to turn over A Q Khan to IAEA if she comes to power, also called on the US to fund international monintoring team to make sure Musharraf doesn't rig the elections.
The CIA director described Pakistan's role in the war on terror, saying "The United States has not had a better partner in the war on terrorism than the Pakistanis. The turmoil of the past few weeks has only deepened that cooperation," he said, adding the two countries now had 'even more clearly mutual and common interests'.
A 32-point questionnaire on alleged lapses in security for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be sent to Pervez Musharraf following the government's decision to include the former military ruler in the probe into her assassination, Pakistani officials have said.
Glimpses into the life of Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, who at 31, is Pakistan's youngest first lady.
"Pakistan's investigation into Bhutto's murder lacks independence, transparency and credibility," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Scotland Yard should never have agreed to only investigate the cause of death, instead of who was responsible. It should not tarnish its reputation by lending its imprimatur to this dubious inquiry."
The Pakistan government has said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will convey her final plan of return to the country on Tuesday. The government has been asking the Pakistan People's Party chief, who is living in a self-imposed exile, to delay her return scheduled for October 18. A minister clarified that the government has no intention to block her on return as a better understanding already existed between the PPP and the government.
Maintaining distance on the political developments in Pakistan, the US has once again said that it is up to the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to decide on her future political steps.
"Yes, I would like the body to be exhumed. Because I know for sure there is no bullet wound other than on the right side. Whether it was a bullet or a strike, I don't want to comment, I don't know," Musharraf said in a wide-ranging interview to Newsweek.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has received a death threat from female suicide bombers, one of her close aides said on Tuesday.
Bhutto says she is the only alternative in the country between the Musharraf dictatorship and the religious fundamentalists.
According to Mr Babar, within four days of this interview the Mumbai terror attack was underway, bringing the two countries closest to war in years -- 'The warmongers shattered Zardari's dream of peace with India'.
The Scotland Yard team spent a little more than two weeks in the country, during which the they visited the site at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi where Bhutto was attacked, reviewed forensic and technical evidence and questioned eyewitnesses and doctors who treated her. They also reconstructed the attack on Bhutto several times.
The prime minister wished her well during the telephonic talk, his media adviser Sanjaya Baru said. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also spoke to Bhutto and condemned the dastardly act.
The United Nations on Tuesday delayed till April 15 the release of its probe panel's report on the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto following a request from Islamabad.
The Election Commission of Pakistan stripped Imran Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, of its electoral symbol -- a cricket bat -- on technical grounds on Sunday January 14, 2024.
"As I prepare to return to an uncertain future in Pakistan in 2007, I fully understand the stakes not only for myself, and my country, but the entire world," she wrote in her revised autobiography Benazir Bhutto - Daughter of the East.
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