Some promises made in Benazir Butto's new manifesto strike at the very root of Musharraf's power base while others -- including handing over control of the Military Initelligence and the nuclear arsenal to the prime minister -- go even beyond that.
Bhutto, who was scheduled to go on a four-day trip to Dubai where her husband Asif Ali Zardari, her daughter and her mother currently live, was stopped at the international airport in Islamabad.
A committee formed by former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and her political rival Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party has completed 80 per cent of its work on drawing up the charter of demands, which is expected to be completed on Thursday.
Pakistan's ruling Pakistan People's Party chief Asif Ali Zardari appears set to sweep Saturday's presidential poll and would be expected to tackle problems like rising militancy and economic malaise after his election.Sources said that Zardari expects to poll over 60 per cent of the 700 members in the electoral college, in an election necessitated by former President Pervez Musharraf's resignation on August 18.
Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir on issues like Musharraf's compulsions in resorting to this extreme measure, conducting elections and restoring democracy in Pakistan, whether its nuclear weapons are in danger of falling into extremists' hands and what the ramifications for India would be.
By indulging in agitation, Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan People's Party, is "strengthening the impression that she is sure of her party's defeat in the elections", Musharraf said at a farewell meeting with members of the outgoing assembly of Punjab province. "The politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, who are pursuing agitational politics, should do away with it and focus on electioneering so that elections could be held in a peaceful atmosphere," he said.
Speaking to a television channel over phone from Saudi Arabia, he said, "If Benazir abandons her negotiations with Musharraf, we can work together and launch a joint struggle."
Undeterred by the government's ban on public meetings under emergency rule, former premier Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People's Party on Wednesday vowed to go ahead with a planned rally in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi on Friday.
Musharraf is out but not dead. The political forces created by him are around though out of power. His old friends in the US would not dislike the idea of keeping around a former trusted ally.
"God forbid, if Pakistan implodes? It will have far-reaching repercussions not just on our region but the wider world community," Bhutto said in an interview published in the latest issue of Hello magazine. Bhutto also spoke about her dream of eliminating militant groups to usher stability in crisis-ridden Pakistan and her desire to work with India and Afghanistan.
Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said she is mulling a virtual campaign for Pakistan's upcoming general election that will use phone messages and taped speeches to avoid violent attacks like the suicide bombing of her homecoming rally in Karachi last week.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto is eyeing several key posts in the proposed interim set up to conduct general elections in the country.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has asked the Pakistan government to seek foreign help in probing last week's bomb blasts in Karachi that killed at least 165 people. Moreover, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has alleged that there was a deliberate act of sabotage to facilitate the attack.
Three men from Punjab province were taken in for questioning on Saturday night after being linked to a car from which an attacker allegedly threw a grenade at Bhutto's motorcade.
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.
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.
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf is planning to attack Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry again with the active support of Benazir Bhutto and covert support of the United States. High level meetings are going on in Islamabad in the last two days to chalk out a new strategy against Justice Chaudhry who is becoming a real threat to the Musharraf-Benazir understanding by puncturing the presidential ordinance through which PPP leaders were granted amnesty.
President Pervez Musharraf has asked former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to delay her return to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile till the Supreme Court decides on petitions challenging his re-election.
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.
This may be a true elections where people really decide on who will represent them rather than an exercise to legitimise an unrepresentative system
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has decided to apply for anticipatory bail apprehending her arrest on arrival in Pakistan on October 18.
The US has said the Bush administration's continuing support for the military ruler for short-term benefits will only make a bad problem worse
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.
Bhutto's return after the Presidential election, expected to take place before October 15, adds to the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Pervez Musharraf's re-election as president looks fanciful. Nawaz Sharif senses it is time to strike.
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has won British and American support for her efforts to enter into a power-sharing 'deal' with President Pervez Musharraf before the forthcoming general elections.
Bakhtawar Bhutto, the eldest daughter of assassinated former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, has vowed to continue her mother's mission to help people of her country, but has not yet decided about joining politics.
With a new book on Benazir Bhutto getting embroiled in a controversy, its publisher on Tuesday regretted that some "personal" elements of the late Pakistani leader got into it and expressed readiness to make amends.
The ruling Pakistan People's Party on Friday condemned as 'despicable' the claim by an Indian author -- that its late party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had confided to him -- that she participated in the nuclear black market.In a statement, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the claim that Bhutto had "made such an acknowledgement to an obscure journalist is a tasteless and cheap exploitation of her tragic assassination".
'The deal between two individuals will not materialise unless it is expanded to all the major political parties on a specific national agenda.'
In an interview with the local KTN station late on Saturday, Bhutto said, "We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform. Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand."
The three-member international commission that the United Nations plans to appoint to probe the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto will be a fact-finding panel and will not carry out any criminal investigation. In a letter to the Security Council released on Thursday, Secretary-General Ban ki Moon said the life of the commission will be of six months. "You will note that the commission's mandate would be of a limited duration (a maximum of six months).
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was posthumously awarded the prestigious Tipperary International Peace Award for 2007 in recognition of her struggle for the restoration of democracy and peace in her country. Bhutto's long-time associate Bashir Riaz received the award on behalf of her family at an emotion-filled ceremony in Tipperary in Ireland on Friday. Riaz, heading a large delegation from Pakistan and the United Kingdom, received the award.
In her latest salvo against slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, Fatima Bhutto has accused her aunt of converting the sombre resting place of the Bhuttos in Sindh province into a revolting "Disney version of Taj Mahal".
Paksitan's People's Party nominee Fehmida Mirza, a loyalist of slain former Premier Benazir Bhutto, was on Wednesday elected the first woman Speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. 51-year-old Mirza, who has been thrice elected to Parliament, won 249 of the 324 votes cast by the newly-elected members of the National Assembly.
Suspense over Pakistan's next prime minister continued with the Pakistan People's Party, which will head a planned coalition government, on Thursday delaying a decision on its nominee amid differences over the frontrunner Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
Pakistan's main opposition parties Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan People's Party on Tuesday jointly mustered a simple majority in the new Parliament, local TVchannels said.
Addressing a public rally in Kohat, Durrani said that contrary to her claims for the last seven years that she won't back Musharraf, Bhutto was now convinced that Musharraf's development agenda had nationwide support.
A five-member team was sent to assassinate former premier Benazir Bhutto, the head of the Pakistani police team probing Bhutto's killing said.
A week before Pakistanis vote in the parliamentary elections, the "vast majority" -- 75 percent -- want President Pervez Musharraf to leave office, with his approval rating touching a new low of 15 per cent, the Washington Post reported.
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