By IANS
Islamabad : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has urged former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to delay her return home from exile.
“It is not a good time,” he said of the Oct 18 date set by Bhutto for her return, a day after the apex court will resume hearing a clutch of petitions challenging his candidature.
Musharraf had won the Oct 6 presidential poll hands down but the Supreme Court had barred the Election Commission from notifying the result till it decided on the petitions against the president, reports Dawn.
In an interview with ARY TV, Musharraf also denied suggestions that the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) had been promulgated earlier this month at Bhutto’s instance.
“The NRO is a normal and ordinary ordinance aimed at ending confrontation and politics of vengeance,” he maintained, adding that the statute was meant for “everyone and for every party”.
The NRO grants amnesty to politicians charged with corruption. Bhutto has been accused of siphoning off Rs.90 billion ($1.48 billion) during her two terms in office. She had made the withdrawal of cases against her a precondition for supporting Musharraf’s re-election bid and for sharing power after the general elections early next year.
The NRO was promulgated just before the presidential poll, at which lawmakers of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) did not cast their ballots.
Musharraf expressed his unhappiness over the PPP boycott but lauded its decision against resigning from the national and provincial assemblies, terming it a “positive move”.
Some 170 opposition lawmakers had quit ahead of the presidential poll in a bid to block Musharraf’s re-election bid. They contended that by doing so, they were rendering the electoral college ineffective.
Reacting to Musharraf’s remarks, PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said there was no change in Bhutto’s travel plans.