By IANS
Islamabad : After weeks of blowing hot and cold, the Pakistani government Tuesday decided to drop corruption charges against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, paving the way for her return home from exile and possibly share power in the new dispensation that emerges after the Oct 6 presidential election.
“The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told reporters here.
With this, two of the three conditions Benazir had set for supporting President Pervez Musharraf’s bid for a second five-year term in office have been met.
Earlier Tuesday, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani was anointed Musharraf’s successor when he steps down as army chief after winning the Oct 6 presidential poll. Bhutto had insisted Musharraf shed his uniform before contesting the election.
A third condition – lifting the bar on prime ministers serving for more than two terms – has yet to be met. But, given the way things have been moving in Pakistan during the past few days, the disqualification could easily be removed through an ordinance.
For weeks, the Pakistani government has been waffling on the Bhutto issue, neither denying nor confirming that negotiations with her were underway.
Till about a month ago, the government was insisting that Bhutto, accused of swindling Rs.90 billion ($1.48 billion), would be arrested if she set foot in Pakistan. Now, even these statements have stopped.
Bhutto, on the other hand, has been confidently maintaining that she would return home in mid-October.
What perhaps tilted the balance in her way was her threat that lawmakers of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would quit the national and provincial assemblies if the corruption charges against her were not dropped.
On Tuesday, 145 lawmakers of the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), a conglomeration of 32 political parties, tendered their resignations from the national and provincial assemblies in a bid to stall Musharraf’s re-election.
This has cast doubts on the validity of the presidential election as the Electoral College has been considerably depleted.
The PPP is perhaps the only opposition party that is aligned to the APDM. Bhutto is likely to take a decision Wednesday on her party’s future course of action.