By NNN-PTI
London : Hitting out at Benazir Bhutto who has sought his resignation, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused the former Premier of wanting to avoid the general election due in January, saying that “the darling of the West” was unlikely to win.
“She (Bhutto) would not like to go into an election because her (Pakistan People’s) Party is not in a state to win at all,” Musharraf, 64, said in an interview to BBC.
Bhutto, who was placed under house arrest in Lahore on Tuesday to prevent her from leading anti-emergency protests, was released yesterday. She has repeatedly called on Musharraf to quit both as President and Army Chief.
Describing Bhutto as “the darling of the West,” Musharraf said he would “certainly go for the election, in spite of any agitation by her. We will not allow her that.”
His remarks follow Bhutto’s statement that she was in talks with several opposition leaders, including exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif, in a bid to form a national unity government and boycott the Parliamentary elections.
Fifty-four-year-old Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan last month from eight years of self-imposed exile after Musharraf promulgated an ordinance granting her amnesty in graft cases, was earlier engaged in possible power-sharing talks with the General.
But now she has rejected the possibility of fresh talks with him and vowed never to serve under him in any future government.